Affection
by jojoangel01
Summary: A tough case forces Kaito Kid to collaborate with Shinichi and Heiji! Delicate combination! It’s about smugglers, thieves, a treasure, the deep love of fiancés and tender approaches on the one you’ve always loved. Starring our three main couples ofcourse!
1. A little review

_Hi guys, I am back! And with a sequel to my beloved story "devotion"! Here's a little summary (honestly, more of a prelude)for you to understand THIS story better which is my first story including action next to the romance and humour and thus very very special to me. Plus, it's my 30th story, yuhuuuu(nur für dich!)!! Let's celebrate baby!! And for once I really think it's gooood! It's Cherry's b-day story 2006, so happy b-day again my dear. _

_For more informations about it and for the pictures to this story, just click on my homepage and find out all about it! Now, please simply dive into a different universe, let me sweep you away and enjoy it. I hope you will have as much fun reading this as I had writing it, and that was a LOT. Loads of love, your Jojo_

* * *

**Prelude**

_

* * *

_

_2004_

**"Unforeseen, destined"**

* * *

At the beginning of the story, Shinichi was calling Heiji up. 

_"I called you Hattori, to tell you that I was able to return to my body. And I told her how I feel about her." _

_"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH, that's so great man!!! Congrats!!!" _

_"Haha, thank you!" _

He and Kazuha visited Shinichi and Ran and about a week later, he received another phone-call from his now adult-sized friend with more news.

_"Do you mean you really… you really…?" _

_"You mean if I proposed to her? Yup, I did!" Shinichi told him proudly. "Don't be so shocked, man! Why should I keep her waiting for something we know is inevitable? _

While Heiji finally did sit down, on the ground, gaping at the receiver, Ran was popping the good news to Kazuha and at the same time, told her the words that would change her life for ever.

_"I really think it is time you stop swearing about him like this. I don't know how long you two plan ignoring your feelings for each other." _

This had started the unstoppable avalanche and Kazuha decided on finally tell Heiji how she felt. She organized a birthday-quiz for the detective and lured him to her house.

The evening was perfect when he insisted on telling her his feelings first.

_"Why?" _

_"Because I am supposed to be the one who should say it first. I love you, Kazuha- chan!" _

_"You WHAT?"_

A thorough make out session later…

_"I want to let you know that I would not be the man I am today if not for you. You always bring out the best in me and love me for the way I am. With you I can be myself. And I can not believe I finally found the guts to confess my love to you but I did and it had been the best decision I have ever made and the best thing I have ever done in my whole life. Till now… Kazuha, when you are near me, my day brightens and when you are away the clouds push themselves in front of the sun. You make my day happy and bright and make me feel… amazing! I would like you forever to do that, to brighten up my day and my life. To do that to me and only to me, for the rest of our lives. _

_I would like nothing more on earth, than for you to be forever by my side. In good and bad times, till death do us part." _

_"Heiji..!" Kazuha whispered with huge eyes. _

_"Although I am stupid sometimes and ennerving and thick headed, just like you, and have forgotten the damn box with the ring, I still dare asking you, Toyama Kazuha, if you are willing to become my wife." _

_"OH HEIJI!" she almost screamed as she fell in his embrace and hugged him as tightly as she could._

This night, they made love for the first time and fell asleep in each others arms.

* * *

_2005_

**"Devotion" **

* * *

The morning after. All of a sudden, Kazuha was emotionally shaken with doubts. About their love, about Heiji, about herself, about everything. She got cold feet, ran away, took Ran and went with her to a mountain Inn to think things over. 

As euphoric Heiji has been to wake up with Kazuha in his arms, as desperate he was as he woke up alone to find her gone. Calling Shinichi, he asked for help. He took his friend to a mountain Inn that he knew and as fate would have it, they met the girls there.

Since they'd had their girl-talk already, Kazuha was feeling confident enough to face him and her doubts while Shinichi and Ran were privately celebrating their little reunion. With hearth-melting confessions from both sides, Heiji could finally help his girl to kill any doubt left.

_"Why?" she whispered. "Why do you love me?"_

_Heiji smiled a warm smile at the girl in front of him, laying a hand on her cheek and spoke softly to her while brushing with a thumb over her wet cheek. "Is a reason necessary? Why do I need a reason?"_

_Kazuha looked confused at him before he went on._

_"Kudo once told me that, and I figured he was right. People need no real reason to kill each other, why do they need a reason to love another person?"_

They spent the rest of their little trip, seizing their time left going to the Zoo, going on excursions, relaxing at the Inn and even dancing where on one evening, they encountered an old acquaintance.

_Kazuha was run over by a guy, raised her head and was met by the sight of a handsome boy, about her age, with ruffled hair and an amazing pair of eyes. He reminded her vividly on Shinichi._

_"No, it's okay, I am fine. It was partly my fault, I was daydreaming!"_

_But he shook his head heavily. "No, I should have taken better care of where I walk and not knock over beautiful women. I hope you forgive me!" and again, before Kazuha could react he had bend and had kissed the back of her hand. She stared at him surprised and blushed. He pulled back and grinned at her. Then his eyes scanned the place for a split second and it seemed to her like he started sweating._

_"I beg your pardon but I need to hurry. Have a nice stay and I hope to see you again!" he winked at her and dashed off._

_Kazuha stared after him with open mouth, wondering about the young man and about what he was running away from. Surprisingly, she could have sworn she had heard him, as he ran away, mutter something like: "Damn mop of hers!"_

Shinichi recognized him but the shadow was already gone, so he thought nothing of it. Almost at the same instant, Shinichi was run over by a happy, drunken Frenchman.

Later the night, it became hot. In both rooms.

_"Do… do you mind if I sleep without shirt?"_

_'No, I definitely have **nothing** against a half-naked Heiji!' Kazuha thought in delight as she played with her fingernails across his bare chest._

Our two couples returned home, where Heiji and Kazuha were about to break the news to their parents as Heiji, Heizo and Toyama senior were called to Tokyo for an emergency. Kazuha waited impatiently for Heiji's return and when he finally did return, they were granted their perfect morning after.

At the end, the clever girl from Osaka showed us impressively how to employ sexy underwear to make a detective fall off his chair in the middle of class.

* * *

...

* * *

The island was a small one, hidden in a small archipelago, in a little-known, rarely trafficked part of the wide Middle Sea. It had no beaches to speak of, only a thin strip of eroded rocks skirting steep cliffs. Its interior was totally inaccessible. 

Except for in one particular spot. At low tide a hole was visible in the rocks, an entrance to a small system of caves carved over the millennia by the constant bombardment of the sea. While you could never get anything so large as a yacht inside, it was just the right size for boats and other small watercraft.

A ship of twenty guns and a respectable tonnage lay at anchor not too far from the hole in the rock. Her flag was not of any country, but rather bore the black and white skull-and-crossbones motif popular among pirates of the day. Her captain, an old, leathery-looking man stood and gleefully contemplated the not-so-small fortune that he had just sent ashore in the ship's compliment of longboats to join an even larger one.

The warships of His Majesty's Royal Navy were many and powerful, and were lurking just a few islands down the archipelago, planning to make short work of the pirates and their vessel within the next few hours. The unwashed miscreants fought well, and dirty, and even bravely. But in the end, nothing remained of the floating dregs of society save for a seemingly unremarkable scrap of hide with some numbers on it.

---

"There is a treasure out there; I know it!" said one red-faced Thomas J. Brewster of Sussex to another board of museum directors of London, some decades after the unnamed and largely forgotten Battle of the Lesser Atlantic Archipelago.

A leathery-looking old man leaned forward in his chair to address the younger and considerably more enthusiastic Mr. Brewster. "Money doesn't grow on trees, you know. A wild goose chase, or _expedition_, since you insist on using that term, of this sort would tie up a tremendous quantity of the museum's funds, funds that could otherwise be put to use maintaining the museum, or supplementing our existing collections, or Heaven knows what else."

"I concur with Mr. Elliot," said the portly chairman. "I'm sorry, Mr. Brewster, but with the way things are these days for our budget, you'll have to find your money someplace else. But don't be too downhearted," he said as Thomas's face fell, "I'm sure that there's someone out there with the money you need."

'Mr. Brewster' nodded, countenance practically on the floor, and collected the excerpts from various log books and other documents that he had brought to back up his story.

Four months, two weeks, and a day later, the _Evening Star_ and the _London Times_ each ran a page-two story (though of different lengths) about a mysteriously well-funded young man whose cleverness, resourcefulness, and determination had found the largest and most spectacular cache of pirate treasure since people began to record that sort of thing and that it was now on display in an underdog of a museum.

Page five of the _Times_ featured an article on the trial of one James Elliot, who had been tried on charges of embezzling a tremendous quantity of museum funds and convicted of the same. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

---

The police escorted the sullen thief out of the building. Safely out of the way stood a tall, lean man, sharp of eye and square of chin. He stood talking to another, somewhat more nondescript man, occasionally letting off a cloud of pipe smoke.

"So as you can see, Doctor," he said, "the museum break-in couldn't have been perpetrated by either of the other two suspects. As I have said on more than one occasion, once you have eliminated all other factors, the one which remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

"So you have. But it's too bad that your method of deduction won't help either us or the police to find where the treasure from the ship of Sam the Red-Whiskered Pirate."

"And who's to say that it won't? The treasure's left the country now, but my deductive methods are catching on; I heard of a police inspector in either France or Germany who was using them to great effect, though perhaps not as well as he might."

---

Naturally there was a lot of commotion about the death of the late Frederic Xavier Marin. After all, it's not every day that someone passes on in so bizarre a fashion as getting crushed by his own packing boxes.

Naturally there was an investigation into the matter. It would seem that any time something weird happens it is both the right and the duty of the police to make sure that there was no malice involved. Part of this investigation focused on the packing boxes that the man had been transporting; there certainly seemed to be a lot of them.

Naturally the police found the quarter-ton of gold, jewels, and assorted manuscripts. And not just any gold, jewels, and manuscripts, but the very ones that had been stolen from a London museum not three months before. Fortunately for that museum, one of their employees had spent a good deal of time describing and cataloguing the items, and slipping small proofs-of-property tags into well-hidden locations.

---

"Anyway, it was recovered and then put into a travelling exhibit. So now it's here at the Tokyo Museum of Historical Art. Doesn't that sound like fun?" asked Ran excited a not so excited, with one raised eye-brow doubting at her looking Shinichi.


	2. Do I have to?

_Just have to mention: Love you guys!! THANKS loads for the incredibly cute feedback! (hugs all)_

* * *

2006

**"Affection"**

* * *

**Do I have to?**

* * *

"What?" Ran asked him, obviously not seeing his problem.

Shinichi, from his point on the couch with his arms crossed in front of his chest, tried to look stubbornly at her as he sighed out.

"Ran…" he decided to try it the calm way. "We only returned from our trip on Sunday. That was two days ago. Haven't we had enough adventures?"

"Hmm…let me think…" she put a finger under her chin, sticking her nose up in the air as she pretended to be thinking hard about this. A second later, she returned her gaze to him. "No."

"But, why don't we use our school-free school differently? It's not every year that our teachers go on an excursion."

"Isn't it the best to use a week off from school doing something useful? Like go to a museum?"

Shinichi whined out. "Raaann…why do you want to go and look at this bunch of old galloons and gold and diamonds and what do I know? It's the same every time and…"

He did not go on as he saw her move around the table and sit down on the couch beside him. She put on the best puppy face that she had, complete with the huge, teary eyes, scrunched eyebrows, lips pursed in a full-blown pout, head lowered a little, hands folded in her lap.

"Shinichiii…" she drew out his name in what sounded like a long whine, pleading none the less, almost accusing him of an evil deed such as not pleasing her by giving her what she wanted, and at the same time giving the impression that she would start crying within the next five seconds if he didn't do anything about it.

Shinichi gulped, head drawn back, eyes wide. He hated it when she did that. How was he supposed to deny her anything when she was looking at him like that?

_'How am I supposed to deny her anything, when she's looking at me like this? Cursed weapons of a woman,'_ he thought grumpily, renewing the position of his arms in front of his chest.

"That's not fair!" Was all that he told her before he turned his head away.

Ran's face immediately lighted up as her poker face dropped, knowing she had already won. She giggled in childish delight and almost jumped at him and into his arms.

Although he was still making grumpy noises, as if he wasn't enjoying it at all, he brought his arms up and around her with mechanic moves. She was chuckling and cuddling deeper in his arms, her cheek against his.

"Thank you!" And the tantei smiled goofily as she decorated her words with a big kiss on his cheek.

"So, will you take me there?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Nope." She giggled, giving his other cheek a kiss as well.

He sighed dramatically. "Well, seems like I have to give in and accept my fate."

"Aww, you are the best!"

"Hehe, I know. But I do think that for this big sacrifice I deserve more than a kiss on the cheek."

"Two kisses." She corrected him, acting as if she had no idea what he was playing at.

"Still!" he tried to pout, which made him look irresistible to her.

"Oh, my poor, poor tantei-kun has to make such sacrifices to keep his fiancée happy. Poor boy." She stroked with one hand over his cheek.

"I am glad that, at least, we agree in this point." He chose to ignore her sarcasm.

"Well, if you think that you're so badly off with me, then I am sure Kei-kun will be happy to go with me." She teased him with serious voice with their classmate of whom they knew was after her for a long time now. Making a move to stand up, she smiled inwardly as she felt his arms around her waist hold her back and sit her on his lap.

"As if you could go anywhere with him and have fun." Shinichi was totally serious. He had not liked her joke, at all and all of his instincts urged him to fulfil his duty as a good fiancé.

He held her closely to his chest, pressing his face between her shoulder-blades while she was stroking his arms on her front. "You know I'd do everything for you. Of course I'll take you there, if that's your wish."

Ran smiled warmly, turned around on his lap and hugged him around his neck, facing the young man she was so deeply in love with. She rested her forehead against his and smiled warmly at him. "I know, sweetheart. I was only teasing." She gave him a quick kiss. This made Shinichi smile.

"And I didn't say you had to do it for free. Of course, you'll get rewarded."

"Oh really?" Suddenly, he was all excited, knowing he'd like any present of her.

"Of course."

"What do I get, if I might ask?"

She grinned at him and bent to whisper something in his ear. Very quickly, gradually more and more, his gaze lit up immeasurable and as she was done and pulled back to grin at him naughtily, he stared at her openly, perhaps hungrily.

"Are you serious?" His voice was not quite as stable as he had wished it would be. He gulped.

Ran only nodded, her grin still on her lips as she observed his every reaction with satisfaction.

Without thinking or wasting another second, he stood up with her in his arms and quickly ran in direction of the door, suddenly pretty eager to get to this museum and especially back home.

"Shinichi!" Ran laughed as he tried to reach the handle to open the door while still having her on his arms which was a harder task to do then it appeared.

"What?" He looked innocently at her, still trying to fumble the door open.

"We can't go right now."

"Huh? Why?" He looked at her with a gaze that made clear that he really couldn't understand her right now.

She only pointed down her body. Shinichi had to blink and it took him a few seconds to gather his brain enough to understand what she was playing at after staring at her sock-covered feet.

"I have no shoes on. Unless you plan on carrying me the whole day, go ahead. And I still need my purse and coat."

"Jeez, always the delays. Women." He grumbled as he put her down, against his will of course.

Ran found that he looked incredibly adorable and she couldn't resist the smile on her face before she took his cheeks in between her hands and pulled him down to kiss him sweetly.

Shinichi immediately forgot everything except her as he wound his arms around her body and deepened the kiss a little.

"I know you are probably pretty eager to…get home again…" She whispered against their lips that were only a few inches apart. _'Especially after what I promised that you'd get then…'_ "I'll only need a minute to get ready, okay?"

How could he resist her sweet smile? He must be a heartless jerk to do so. Or maybe blind.

_'No, blind wouldn't work either since I could still hear her sweet voice which is comparable to her smile. Oh god, I am so…' _Shinichi debated with himself, deep in thoughts while he answered almost absentmindedly. "Sure".

Ran smiled, thoroughly satisfied, gifted him with another, far too quick, kiss and then quickly went to gather her things.

---

At the same time, in a totally different part of Tokyo, some students did not have that much luck as the students of the Teitan-high. Those students still had school and weren't very happy about it.

However, as always, there were exceptions. They existed, in this particular case, in the form of two girls who were certainly happy at the moment and amusing themselves pricelessly. No matter that this amusement was at the cost of another person.

"So, why won't you tell us?"

"Because it's none of your business."

"I am on Keiko's side. You really should finally get it over with and tell us."

"I said no!" The girl blushed and turned away from her two friends.

Those giggled but didn't even think of stopping. This was way too much fun.

"Aww, come on, Aoko-chan. If you spent a romantic weekend with your husband, you really should tell us all about it." Keiko, 18, a girl with blonde hair that she was wearing in plaits and glasses, cornered her friend from one side.

"We are your best friends, after all. You can really trust us." Reika, almost 19, short, dark hair and with a wicked smile at the moment, cornered the poor girl in the middle from the other side.

Nakamori Aoko, dark brown, long hair that were a little messy by nature, 18 years old, hot tempered girl and only daughter of Inspector Nakamori, blushed and started sweatdroping as she realized that she had nowhere to go and no chance of escaping.

"I-I told you already. I went to help my Dad with his investigations."

"But you weren't at home the whole weekend."

"It was out of town."

Both girls looked at her in a way that clearly showed how much they did not believe her.

"Don't look at me that doubtfully. It's not my fault that cursed Kid announced another of his robberies."

"But the announcement is for Wednesday, which is tomorrow."

"W-well, my Dad liked to start early with the preparations." Aoko tried to talk herself out of this, slightly sweating by now.

"Aoko-chan…" Reika started, grinning at her which drove Aoko almost insane.

"What?" She almost barked.

"Kid's announcement received the police only yesterday, on Monday. AFTER the weekend. It was on the television."

"Uhh…" Aoko blushed and gulped as inconspicuously as she could. Both girls were approaching her with silly grins on their faces, only waiting for Aoko to let something slip or to simply confess to them. It all became too much for her pretty soon and she started screaming so loudly that the whole class could hear her, fumbling wildly around with her arms.

"Oh, quit it you guys. As if I'd voluntarily spend my week-end with that jerk!!"

"Well, that's a feeling I definitely share." A masculine voice made the heads of the three girls turn. Kuroba Kaito, 18, magician and childhood friend of Aoko, approached the girls in his usual cool fashion, hands in his pockets and a grin to melt. Many a girl had lost herself in this grin.

Keiko and Reika grinned, smelling their chance and turned to the young man.

"Come on, admit that you've spend a romantic weekend together."

"Yeah, come on. Aoko is simply too shy to let anything slip."

"**Me**, spending a romantic weekend with **her**? Are you nuts? Just look at her, she's got the cuteness and sex-appeal of a mule. She got no curves and is half male, in looks AND behaviour. Hahaha, why would I do such a stupid thing as…"

That's how far he got. Loud smashing sounds rang through the classroom and all that remained were whimpering noises from a poor victim.

Aoko's fist was red while she was fuming. It had been a long while since she had been this angry at somebody, but Kaito always hit her weak spots. She turned away and left the classroom without another word. Most of her classmates had at least expected some sort of insult-marathon between those two, like they usually tend to spend their time, but they were disappointed this time.

Kaito lay on the reminders of the furniture, feeling like his bones were as broken as the desk was. As he watched Aoko turn away, her body shaking with anger, he felt his heart break along with the rest.

Again. He had done it again. Insulted her without thinking. He was such an idiot. But he couldn't do anything about it. He felt horrible, knowing Aoko was somewhere, hiding herself and crying her eyes out. And he hated himself for it.

Kaito peeled himself off the ground, brushed the dust away from his uniform, although more out of habit than need to be clean. Sitting down on the window-sill, he sighed while looking out at the trees in front of the school.

Why was he always such a jerk? For the bystanders, it seemed like nothing had changed between him and Aoko, but that was not true and he knew it as well as she did. And he hated it. But it's typical that not one of those who were laughing at their endless quarrels noticed the change.

They weren't even able to look in each others eyes lately. To be exact, the past two days. And the teasing had reduced drastically to the point where they weren't even talking unless it was to fend off some bugging people, like it had been now.

_'Well, it's not completely true…'_ he had to admit to himself. Aoko had tried twice to have a proper conversation with him in the last two days but that had only enraged him and lead to him insulting her and thus her hitting him and to yet another broken desk.

Why he had fended her off so cruelly? Well, Kaito had his own reasons, that's for sure, no matter how disarranged and odd they may seem to other people.

It all had started out last Friday. He could remember that day clearly, as if it had been only yesterday instead of four days ago.


	3. Melting away

_Sorry it took so long, I was not in the country this month. Anyway, I know this one was worth the waiting so you all please have a wonderful time reading this! I had such a great time writing it, please enjoy._

* * *

**Melting away**

* * *

"You want what?" 

"I am telling you now for the sixth and last time. I-am-going-with-you!"

"Three words. No-way-Aoko." He counted with his fingers so she could see it and to support emphasizing his point visually. "I am going **alone**."

"You promised me, I could have what I wanted for my birthday. And I want to go with you to your little trip."

"It's only one day in a mountain inn. Nothing special about it."

'And I need to observe that guy from France who had the information…. How am I supposed to do that with you hanging on my leg?'

"No way I am taking you with me!" He looked absolutely resolute at her, his gaze telling that there was no way he would ever in ten thousand years change his mind.

Unfortunately, he never really was resolute when it came to Aoko. With everything else, he could be determined to the utmost and have an iron will, resolution being not a problem at all.

But not when it came to his childhood-friend. Funnily, he didn't know why.

That's why, one day later, he was sitting on the train with an excited Aoko next to him, who was looking out of the window happily. He sighed. Why couldn't he ever say no to her? Why?

He turned to look at her beautiful face that was reflecting on the window and how it lit up as they passed a flock of sheep. As she turned to face him and tell him about it, he only nodded and looked away as soon as he could.

'_I wonder if there are any pills for it.'_

In addiction to that, he wondered why Aoko would want to spend a whole weekend with him without even knowing the reason for him being there. She trusted him blindly.

Arriving at the mountain inn, Kaito checked out the situation immediately. He used the opportunity as the man with the room keys had his back turned to check out the list with the names of the guests. He quickly discovered that the name he was after did not stand in the list of those people who had arrived that day.

"Did you read this?" Aoko asked him but did not look up from her brochure as she went on talking very excitedly. "Look at all this possible activities here. They have a cosy path through the beautiful forest for hiking, the zoo is nearby, they have a shopping arcade in the next village, the dancing area with bar is right over there.." She pointed before looking back down. "They even have their own, tradition out-door hot spring, oh that's SO great! And wow. Two famous restaurants with traditional and foreign food. Isn't that amazing?" She smiled broadly at him and Kaito forgot for a moment why he was really here.

"Excuse me?" The young counter-man asked him for the third time before Kaito reacted, startled.

"What?"

"I said, here's the key to your room, Sir."

"Oh! Right."

"If you need any help with your luggage, Monti-kun over there will be very happy to be of service."

"No, thank you. We'll manage."

"As you wish. Your room is on the second floor. Have a nice stay."

"Thank you." Aoko bowed politely since Kaito had already grabbed her bag and was walking ahead. Because she quickly hurried after him, she couldn't see the knowing, a little envious, grin on the face of the young man.

'_Oh, how beautiful is young love.'_ He truly had seen a dozen of young couples spending their weekend in the mountains and it made him wish his girlfriend hadn't broken up with him a few weeks ago.

---

Kaito opened the door to the room and walked inside. Leaving their luggage on he couch, he walked over to the window and opened it. Sticking his head out, he checked the situation. Second floor, if you counted the entrance and restaurant level, all right, but it was not like you'd die if you jumped out of the window. There were another two floors above them. He had a perfect view of the forest behind the Inn and could see the beginning of the hiking path Aoko had earlier talked about. If you walked around the house to the left, that's where the hot spring area must lie, three quarters of it hidden in the forest.

He walked back inside and looked around, his hands in his pockets. The Inn had no elevators. The rooms must look alike on every floor, judging from the position of the windows below and above them. The staircase only two doors further down the corridor lead directly to the main hall which you had to pass so that you could get to the bar and dancing area.

Kuroba Kaito grinned. This was going to be **fun**.

"KAITO!" Aoko came running to him and before he could even blink twice had to hold his aching head. Aoko had bonked him over the head with her right fist.

"AU! What did you do that for, you stupid-"

"One!" She screamed at him.

Kaito blinked a few times at her in his complete puzzlement. "What?" he couldn't help but ask as he figured he really had no idea what she was talking about.

"I said ONE!" she emphasized the number with a harsh tone.

"One what?" He was still not more enlightened than before.

"There is only ONE futon in the room! It's king-size but still. You pervert, you knew it and you probably even WANTED it that way!" She was emphasizing every word with a hit on his head from her infamous mop that she always pulled out of nowhere, like he did with his magic tricks.

"What? Wait, Aoko! Put that damn mop of yours away. I had no idea this would happen, I swear. I was to come here alone, remember? And I asked for a room for two people but they never mentioned this little detail. I am sorry, stop hitting already."

"Go down immediately and ask for another room!" She more than ordered.

Kaito wouldn't have liked had other used this description to describe him: scared. But, when she was looking at him like this, her fingers still clenching tightly around her instrument of doom, he couldn't help his body as it was already dragging him out he room.

Aoko was still mad at him as he returned a little later, his hands in his pockets and a grim expression on his face.

"What happened?"

"He said that all rooms are like this and that they don't have separate futons anywhere."

"WHAT?" She screamed at him. "I can't believe this! And…" She opened her mouth to go on with her ranting as Kaito held on hand up, effectively shutting her up.

"Stop it. I'll sleep on the couch, so stop making a scene, alright?"

Aoko blinked a few times at him, stupefied. It was clear that Kaito had had enough of it and with him sleeping on the couch, she hadn't really anything left to be mad about. But to not lose her face, she tried to keep the angry façade up a little longer.

"Fine. You had better." And with those words she stomped away.

Kaito only looked after her without moving, then he turned away and sighed out a deep, long breath.

A little later, the incident was repressed. They didn't talk about it anymore and pretty soon, the choosing of their next activities was the topic at hand. While Kaito could talk her out of the shopping arcade thing, there was no way he could get around some of the other activities.

For example, going for a walk through the forest after going to the famous restaurant with the foreign food. His charge, of course. _'Curse it. I should have known.'_ He mentally brooded. _'And I didn't even find this stupid guy that's supposed to be here somewhere even though Aoko and I had a good look at the grounds before dinner and before we came out here. He better be somewhere around or else I have to pay my dear information-source another late night visit that he won't like at all.'_

With his hands stuffed in his pockets, he was walking a few feet behind Aoko, who was happily admiring the nature, going from left to right and looking at the plants and flowers next to the path, here and there telling him to come and have a look. Involuntarily, a small grin appeared on one corner of his lips. Her natural behavior was one of the things that he liked the most about her. Not that he would ever tell her. Or admit it. And he didn't even really like her, at all. Really not. So he truly had nothing to admit in the first place. _'There is no way I…'_

"Kaito, look over there! Do you see that bird in the tree? Isn't it beautiful?"

Kaito looked at the direction she was pointing at but said nothing. Aoko turned her full body to him now, observing him closely. "Admit it."

He blushed as his head shot over to stare at her. "What??" Was he found out?

"I said, admit it. The bird is cute. I know it is and I know that you love birds as well, right? You use a lot of birds for your tricks."

At his dumbfounded expression, she couldn't help but giggle which didn't help his blush one bit. "What? Didn't you think somebody would notice? Stop gaping like a fish-" He flinched a little at her last word. "-and move already. We still have to try out the bar and the hot springs."

She was already pushing him from behind, making him move ahead. Giving up any rational thinking, he dragged along in the direction she was leading.

"You never told me what your father said to the idea of this trip."

Aoko went silent. Kaito grinned and turned around to look at her. "Don't tell me you didn't tell him."

"W-well, he wasn't at home anyway and I thought, why bother him with details…"

"Haha, you told him you'd stay over at Keiko's, right?"

At her deep blush, he knew that he was right. Amused at the thought of Aoko lying to the oh-so-great Nakamori, Kaito kept walking on, a silly grin on his face. All of a sudden, he stopped short, causing Aoko to bump into his back.

"What's wrong?"

"Pssst." The finger pressed to his lips signalized silence. Then he turned and looked at Aoko with an excited smile. "Look there!" He whispered, pointing at something in front of him.

Curiously, Aoko spied around the boy and her eyes lit up immediately. She looked back up at Kaito. "Are those bunnies?"

"Yeah, must be a family. Look. The mama and papa and three little babies."

"That's sooo cute!" Aoko squealed behind her hands that she had pressed to her lips. Her look turned teasing as she looked at him. "Just like those you sometimes pull out of your hat."

Kaito blushed but he didn't know why. "Are you making fun of me?"

She grinned at him playfully and said nothing, only walked ahead. Kaito shook his head, stuck his hands in his pockets and walked after her, inwardly sighing at the confusing emotions she was stirring inside him.

'_I'll never understand girls. Not in a thousand years. But at least, this is better than being hit. Did she just tease me? And when was the last time we were this relaxed around each other?'_

Mentally shrugging and arriving next to her side, they resumed their walk. Kaito had had only one other confusing moment, as he truly was weighting the ups and down of reaching out and take her hand.

'_WAH! What am I thinking? Must be the mountain air. Bad, BAD mountain air. Everything's all right with me, oh yes. I am a healthy young man. Good. Deep breaths, buddy.'_

He forced his mind to completely shut down for a whole minute before his eyes caught her little, content smile. In the late afternoon-sun, she really did look…nice.

'_Maybe if I just reach out for or brush her hand before and then…OH! __No no no. __What am I…? It's really time to get back. This is freaking me out.'_

Sticking his hands deeper in his pockets and clenching them to fists in a subconscious attempt to keep them in place, he tried to relax his muscles. In vain.

---

"What are we going to do now?" Kaito asked after arriving at the Inn.

"What about the hot springs?" Aoko replied, rumouring around her clothes in her bag.

"Well, I don't fell like bathing today…Why don't you go and have a nice, long dip in the springs while I shower here?"

"But Kaito, you should seize the opportunity and…"

"I am fine, really. Go ahead and have fun." He had already turned and walked over to the window, looking out of it thoughtfully.

"Kaito…" Aoko breathed quietly as she looked after him with sad expression.

A couple of minutes later, he heard the door to the room open. "I am going, see you later," she yelled across the room.

"All right." He replied and the moment he heard the door shut behind her moved to action.

An incredibly, perfect poker face slipped on the features of the young man as he quickly went to get a cap, a longer shirt and the second key of their room before leaving it quickly. He hurried along the corridor, making sure to hide his face enough with the cap so that nobody would recognize him and eventually arrived at his destination.

He hid behind a large pillar while observing the man behind the reception desk. (It was now an older man with grey hair) work. He seemed to be a good worker, this was immediately obvious. Kaito knew this was the kind of man who did not tolerate the slightest thing being out of order or substandard. After waiting for a couple of minutes, Kaito lost the hope that he would ever go away so that he could have a good look at the books.

The telephone rang and the man picked it up after exactly two times ringing and greeted the possible guest in an appropriate manner.

"Hello? Yes, I'd only like to inform you that there is a family of cockroaches on the fourth floor throwing a party and besieging my room so I can not leave it. I am so scared." Kaito spoke in his cell phone with a sweet, shaky, feminine voice that his own mother wouldn't have recognized.

"Thank you for the information, Ma'am. I am on my way to immediately eliminate the problem." The man sprung up and was already on his way to help the lady in trouble.

Kaito rolled his eyes inwardly but lost no time in getting through with his plan. He jumped over the counter and opened the books with the registrations, going through the names, checking for possible candidates.

'_As far as I can tell, there are six people with foreign names that have checked in over the past three days. Three of them are still here but only two are male. But neither name resembles the possible names that my informant told me the suspect could have…what to do, what to do…Oh, look what we have here.'_ He compared the names again and a triumphant grin appeared on his lips.

Closing the books and re-arranging everything the way he had found it, he quickly hopped off the counter and hid again behind his pillar. And not a second too early. Only a heart-beat later, the grey-haired man reappeared with a mad expression on his face, murmuring to himself distant curses.

"I knew it couldn't be true. Stupid kids and their pranks. If I get my hands on you, I swear I will…"

Kaito chuckled and slowly walked by him and back up the stairs to their room with quick steps, ruminating contentedly about what he had found out.

'_Okay, those two guys left both have foreign names. But only one of them orders room-service with a considerable amount of alcoholic drinks after one a.m. _

_As far as I know the bar closes at one but the room-service is open all night. From this information and the fact that the man I am looking for was originally born in France and we all know that there are a lot of alcohol-crazed people living there. I think I have my man. Odevie Jean.' _He checked his wrist-watch.

'_I have no time left to go and check his room. Aoko might return any moment. I better take a shower and search at the bar-area for him. He will be there, drinking, till the end, as usual. Those people never change certain habits.'_

---

"Kaito?" A female voice echoed through the empty room. "Hello?"

"I am here! I'll come out in a second."

"You are still showering? Let me tell you that you are SO missing out. The water is simply amazing." She leaned against the closed door of the shower and kept on talking happily. "The trees around the spring looked so beautiful, especially in the dimly lit area. The whole atmosphere is so enchanting and combined with the relaxing feeling of the hot water from the mountain spring; it really is a feeling only describable as…"

She was forced to stop as Kaito opened the door and she fell against him, holding on to him for support only to realize a moment later that he had no shirt on. They stared into each others eyes, only aware of the presence of the other. "As what?" he asked in a low voice that went right through her and she felt the hair on her arms rise.

She swallowed and breathed out without thinking. "…brilliant."

A smile slowly crept on Kaito's lips which soon brought her back to reality. Embarrassed, she quickly turned and walked away from him. She had no idea where she went to, simply "away" was what she wanted to achieve. "W-well, it's too bad you missed it. It was really great and there weren't a lot of people and…"

He grinned at her embarrassed babbling and walked over to the couch to get a shirt which he put on. Looking out of the window, he had to smile and said her name. "Come here, quickly."

Gulping, she ignored his rude interruption of her talking and walked over to the guy who was looking out of the window, elbows on the sill. She looked in the direction he was looking at and her lips opened immediately to form a quiet: "Aawww."

Behind the crowns of the trees, the sun was slowly setting, already being half disappeared. It was glowing in a bright variety of red, pink, yellow and orange, illuminating everything around and diving it in its colors.

"That's so beautiful." Aoko said dreamily as she took the same position that Kaito had.

"It really is." He agreed while never taking his eyes from the amazing sunset.

"Somehow, it's sad, that the day is already over." She spoke softly without thinking.

Kaito, after a few seconds, murmured in agreement before silence again fell over them.

"Aoko, we are going down to the dancing area in a bit."

'_And check out the situation. Especially that bar. I wonder when he'll show up. I am going to have a closer look at it.'_ Kaito was deep in thoughts, already making plans.

Never, not in three centuries, had he counted with the reaction he received from Aoko. He expected her to scream at him since she never liked taking orders, to be mad, to tell him to go alone even hitting him with her mop seemed more reasonable than what she actually did.

Her face brightened up slowly but visibly and she looked at him with a huge smile that had him catch his breath for a second. Instead of murmuring, she only nodded. "I'll go get ready."

She quickly turned from him and disappeared to look through her clothes for something to wear, totally excited. Kaito only looked after her, trying his hardest to ignore the nagging feeling and tingling sensation in the area of his heart.

Twenty minutes later, she was standing in front of him, proudly twirling around a couple times so that he could look thoroughly at her outfit.

"Well? What do you say?"

He bit his lip because a stupid comment and some teasing were already on their way. But it was out of habit and not because she looked bad. She didn't look bad at all, in the contrary. The silky, violet, knee-long dress that she wore, modest and simple but at the same time elegant and flattering, was suiting her perfectly and hugging her at the perfect places so that he couldn't help but notice her voluptuous curves.

'And I called her half male. Man, was I wrong!' 

He couldn't remember the last time she had looked this cute. Like a real girl. Young woman.

She was wearing lip gloss and a very light shade on her eyes. She didn't look 'painted' at all, as Kaito called most girls wearing make-up, which he found simply ridiculous. In fact, hadn't he known her for practically all his life, he wouldn't have noticed the difference. But now it only emphasized her eyes and lips and Kaito found himself gulping, almost staring at her. Shocked, he could hardly believe that he could not remember the last time that she had worn a real dress.

"Kaito?"

Embarrassed, he blinked and looked into her eyes for a second before turning away and coughing, face flaming. "You look…I mean…this dress is…pretty. Let's go." He held the door open for her.

Aoko walked to him and stopped to look in his face again. "Thanks. You look quite good yourself." And before he could see her own, pink cheeks, she walked past him and on ahead.

Kaito blinked after her and looked down at himself. Black pants and white shirt with the two top-buttons open. His head lifted to look confused after the girl who had her hands clasped behind her lower back while walking down the corridor slowly and with a light bounce in her steps.

He shook his head, closed the door and walked after her, letting out a deep breath.

---

"I can't do this!"

"Don't act like a baby."

"I really can't!"

"We've done this several times when we were little."

"But we're not kids anymore."

"Shut up and come here."

"Jeez…" he murmured under his breath and with red cheeks let her drag him to the dance-floor. He shouldn't have given her that drink earlier.

Catching him completely by surprise, Aoko took one of his hands and placed it on her waist while holding the other and placing her free one on his hips. It seemed to him that maybe the mountain air had made her a little bolder and he tried to relax as well. If this was all right with her, then it was with him as well.

Aoko started moving with him, showing him how to move and being the skilful person that he was, he pretty quickly understood what he had to do and adapted to her motions. Nervously, he realized that this was rather pleasant and after some time he started really enjoying this new experience and looked happily at Aoko. She understood the meaning of his smile and returned it.

His heartbeat increased in speed and he quickly broke the eye-contact while suppressing the odd feeling in his stomach as if a million of pigeons were throwing a party. Two parties. Make twenty out of it.

Instead, he looked back at his feet to check if they were doing everything correctly and not, for example, stamping on her feet.

'_Those high-heels are doing something about her moves but I don't know what.'_ He blushed at his own thoughts. _'What the hell am I thinking again?' _

Confused and a little freaked out by his own emotions, he lifted his gaze and let it travel over the dance floor. As the song slowed down, he realized with a hot face that Aoko had lightly leaned her head against his shoulder. His body tensed a little and he felt like breathing was a real hard thing to do.

And then he saw him. The Frenchman he was looking for, who would give him the last important clues for Kid's next performance. He was already walking away from the bar with a beer bottle in his hand. Kaito stopped dancing. Aoko pulled away and looked puzzled at him. She was enjoying herself immensely, why did he stop?

"Aoko, I am sorry. I told you I had this business that I came here for, right? Well, it's calling. I gotta go." And he was already walking away from her, leaving her behind in the middle of the dance floor before she could gather her wits enough to answer him.

Aoko's cheeks reddened as a strong feeling of embarrassment washed though her. And she could not stand it when she was embarrassed, let alone deal with it. Thus, it's no wonder that her embarrassment had to make room for anger. Anger, she could deal with. Oh yes.

"Kaitooooo!" She was already chasing after him with her wooden weapon in her hands.

He shivered at her battle-cry. He should have known she would react like this. Actually he had known for it was no coincidence he had chosen to immediately disappear from her reach.

He knew he had to go after this Jean-guy quickly and on his way, looked over his shoulder for any sign of Aoko and the mop he knew she would hit him with if she were to catch him. He cursed inwardly the guy for having to appear at such a moment when he was enjoying himself so much. And not only that he had to appear, he only took a drink and walked away again, already being very drunk.

Suddenly -he was not looking where he walked- he bumped something and knocked it out. Thanks to his amazing reflexes, he reached out and grabbed the hand of the young girl before she hit the ground. Pulling her to her feet, he murmured a quick apology, trying hard to not lose the Frenchman.

"I am so sorry, it was my fault. Did you hurt yourself?"

And then he looked into the eyes of the girl and was stilled to silence. Didn't he know her from somewhere?

"No, it's okay, I'm fine. It was partly my fault, I was day-dreaming," she quickly apologized.

But he shook his head heavily. "No, I should have taken better care of where I walk and not knock over beautiful women. I hope you forgive me!"

Before Kazuha -that was the name of the girl- could react, he had bowed and had kissed the back of her hand. She stared at him surprised and blushed. He pulled back and grinned at her. Then his eyes scanned the place for a split second and it seemed to her like he started sweating.

'Aoko is coming. Dammit. OH, the Osaka-tantei is coming. Damn, damn, damn, I knew I had seen this girl somewhere before.'

"I beg your pardon but I need to hurry. Have a nice stay and I hope to see you again!" he winked at Kazuha and dashed off, with half his mind wondering what Heiji was doing here. Maybe for the same reason as he was? But how should he…

Kazuha stared after the stranger with open mouth, wondering about the young man and about what he was running away from before she smiled as she saw Heiji approach. Kaito was cursing under his breath.

"Damn mop of hers."

"Here you are!" A high voice behind him made him stop in his tracks and shiver.

"Aoko!"

"So this trip was a sole excuse for flirting, wasn't it?" Her infamous mop hovering over her head and she did not care the least about the people around them who were staring.

"W-what are you talking about?"

"Come on, I saw you flirt with that girl just now. Jeez, leaving me behind because of something like that…" Her anger seemed to be almost visible as he felt the air around her being charged rapidly.

"I did not flirt, you jealous idiot!"

"I am not jealous!!"

"You are!" Kaito retorted, mentally, and with satisfaction, noting the fact that she reacted to the _jealous_ and not to the _idiot_.

"I AM NOT!!"

"I knew it'd had been better not to take you with me. I must have been totally out of my mind!" he screamed.

"Nobody asked you to, you monstrous fool!" Aoko screamed back

"Oh YEAH?" They fought on.

"Yeah!"

"Who begged to come with me, huh?" He started imitating a girl's voice with big eyes. "Aw, pretty please dear Kaito, take me with you, ok??"

She was swinging the large stick above her head and Kaito backed a little away. He looked into the crowd, searching for his suspect as he suddenly locked eyes with another detective.

Sweat started to form on his forehead and he got really nervous. 'I wonder if he recognized me. What the hell is Kudo doing here, anyway? Do they have a detective convention somewhere nearby or something? Jeez, I have to get away really quickly.'

He seized the opportunity as the Frenchman knocked Shinichi sideways. After apologizing to him, the tall man disappeared in direction of the stairs and Kaito knew he had to follow.

"Aoko, behind you!" he screamed and pointed with a finger. The girl turned to look what he was trying to show her, but as she saw nothing she turned back to him confused. "Kaito? There's nothing, what are you-"

But the only thing that she found was white smoke. Her childhood friend was nowhere to be seen.

'Why does that jerk have to be a magician?' Aoko was fuming as she looked around the place for any sign of Kaito but found none. She quickly walked up to their room, hoping to find him there, but after searching for him she had to face the truth. He was not there.

'Where the hell did we went to?' Angry, she stomped over to the couch and sat down with a loud "thud". A minute later, her gaze softened and her muscles relax a little. 'I shouldn't have screamed at him like this. But he always gets me so angry.'

Silence followed and her features changed completely, from anger to concern. Aoko walked over to the window and looked out of it. The moon was already shining down at them and she felt regret that Kaito was not here, knowing that he loved the moon.

'I hope he is all right.' She sighed and turned away from the window. 'Come back soon.

Baka.'

---

'_Thank god he was too drunk to close the window. Spared me some work.'_ Kaito thought as he entered the room of Jean Odevie.

Crouching, he looked around in the darkness to scan the place, finding he had been indeed right with his assumption that all the rooms were shaped the same way which made his work easier, as well.

Loud snoring from the futon told him that the alcohol and sleep had a tight grip on the Frenchman and Kaito stood up all the way. He started looking through the private files that lay open on the table.

'_Oh my, he couldn't get more carelessly, could he? Why didn't he just leave me a note, would be a lot easier.'_ Kaito shook his head at this unprofesionalism.

He found a note that was written on a napkin_. 'Must be from tonight. He probably met somebody at dinner before he came to the bar. 'Monday, 11 p.m.' it says. That doesn't help lots. I need the codes, the codes. Looking at this chaos they should be here somewhere…'_

He looked through all the files twice, at one point almost getting a heart attack from an extremely loud snoring coming from the direction of the futon that caused him to jerk mightily and lay on the ground immediately for a minute until he realized that it had been false alert.

Cursing, he stood up again and looked a last time through the files and books on the table but found nothing. Looking around the room, the only other thing in there was a case with clothes. That was the last option after he had checked Jean's jacket. Walking to it quietly, he opened the lid and started looking around but soon gave up.

'Nothing. Dammit. He's not as stupid as I thought he was. He didn't bring the codes with him to this meeting in case they looked through his room, not-stupid old man. That means that this whole thing was useless. At least, I know now that it's indeed him who has those codes I need. But I still have a few days so I'll have to make a home-visit on Monday. I better hurry back to Aoko before she has enough time to finish her plans of how to murder me.'

---

He returned to their room later that night. He knew Aoko was probably still mad at him as he entered the room as quietly as a mouse, an odd, apprehensive feeling in the stomach.

"Aoko? Are you already asleep?" He asked experimentally in direction of the futon. He had his answer as two pillows, came flying out of nowhere, hit him in the face. "I see. Are you still mad at me?" Another pillow landed on his face. He sighed. "All right, I got it."

"You got nothing!" She suddenly screamed at him, making him flinch back. "What do you think were you doing, leaving like that? And me behind on the dance floor all alone with hardly a warning? Didn't you think that I could be worried about you?"

"A-Aoko…" he was searching for the right words but was honestly speechless.

"And then you go screaming at me and insulting me and that after today and it really…" She could feel the tears coming up but stayed strong.

"Aoko!" He tried again but that's all that he could say.

"Maybe you were right. Maybe it would have been better for you if you hadn't taken me along…" It pained her to say this but she couldn't help it.

"Aoko…" He took a deep breath, knowing he had to say something. "Look, I am really sorry about what happened. I didn't mean it like that. I had a nice time with you, I really had and it was all right that I took you with me so stop being mad already, ok?"

Silence followed his earnest request. It made him quite a little nervous. Silence and Aoko never had been a good combination. Last time she had been silent for longer than he'd expected it, he had to take her to the hospital in the middle of the school-day for she had collapsed. Her appendix had been about to explode and who knows what would have happened if he hadn't reacted that quickly. So yeah, silence and Aoko almost always indicated upcoming doom.

Then, to his relief, she broke the tense silence. "Do you mean it?" she whispered very quietly.

"That I am sorry? Yes, that's why I said it and-"

"No…not that. You said you had a nice time with me…"

Kaito blushed again, which he really didn't like and quickly looked away from her, his hands folding behind his head in the typical, embarrassed manner.

"Idiot…would I say it if it wasn't true?" Then, out of nowhere, a rather nasty thought crossed his mind and he looked shocked at her. "Didn't you…have a n-nice day?"

She blushed deliciously and looked away from him as she hesitantly answered. "I had a really nice time and I…I really liked it. Thank you for taking me with you."

"Nah, it was nothing." He murmured, scratching the side of his head.

Both wondered at their boldness and a pregnant silence fell between them. It was Kaito who first gathered his wits.

"Well, let's sleep then."

"Okay." She quietly agreed.

Kaito quickly got rid of his clothes, remaining in a simple, white shirt and green trousers. Without another word, he took the blanket and pillow that Aoko had placed on the couch and lay down.

"Good night." He sighed quietly.

"Good night." He received a shy reply.

After half an hour and sixteen times that Kaito turned to the other direction or shifted back and forth on the couch, Aoko sighed loudly and sat up in the futon.

"Kaito…come and sleep in the futon."

"WHAT?" He blushed even worse, now looking at her as if she'd gone mad.

Aoko blushed just as badly and tried her hardest to not lose her resolution. "I…I mean, it's too uncomfortable on the little couch and all those chairs are not nearly big enough. But the futon IS big enough; it was made for two people after all, so why make a big deal out of this? We have done this before, right?"

"But we were four!"

"And eight and nine and ten. We did this till we entered high school, remember? We never had a problem, so why should it matter to us now?"

"Maybe because we are 18 years old??"

"Kaito…!" There definitely was a threat in her voice. The boy winced. "Are you planning on doing indecent things tonight?"

"W-what?? Of course not! What are you thinking, you crazy-"

"Then I don't see a problem." She effectively shut him up for a whole ten seconds.

"B-but we can't, what would the…"

"I'm tired. Just do it, ok? For once, don't pull up a fight because of the every little detail."

'Little detail, she says…pfff…' 

She scooted over to the edge of the futon and lifted the cover from the free side. "See, there's plenty of room in here. So stop being a cry-baby and just do it."

It was clear that this was her final words to this matter as she looked sternly at him. Kaito tried to hide his blush and nervousness but that wasn't quite possible considering what she was asking of him. But he knew just as well that she'd be unbearable if she did not sleep enough. That's why he quickly walked over to the futon with his bed-stuff and came to a halt, looking uncertainly at her. After a LOOK from Aoko, he inwardly whined and lay down, slipping under the cover hesitantly.

"Good night," she whispered to him. Again, eyes closed.

"Good night." He replied, looking at the ceiling.

Although neither would admit it, both young adults were really nervous. Not only their rapidly beating heart-beats were betraying them but also the fact that each of their limbs was rigid and stiff.

And so, the time passed by but neither could really fall asleep, no matter how tired they had been earlier. One hour passed and Kaito was still staring at the ceiling. Some time ago, their heart-beats had gone back to normal, having acclimated to the situation. From her breathing, he could still tell that she was not asleep, although she had her back turned to him.

He grinned stupidly to himself. _'I wonder what the old Nakamori would say if he knew that Kaito Kid is sleeping in the same bed as his own daughter.'_

Another thirty minutes later, sleep was becoming a welcomed option. Both were feeling the exhaustion of the day get to them and even Kaito's eyes drifted close.

Half in delirium, he turned his head on the pillow so that his closed eyes were facing the side of her face. He was almost sleeping as a smile appeared on his face upon smelling something. It was a familiar smell that he had gotten to like. A lot.

"You showered after using the hot springs, right?" he asked her quietly, eyes still closed.

Aoko flustered as she turned her head to look at him, meaning to find out whether he was making fun of her or not. But the honest, innocent expression on his face quickly reassured her. "Yeah." She breathed out quietly. "Why?"

He took a deep breath, smiling. "I like your shampoo. It smells nice."

Maybe it was the night that gave him the security for him to speak out what he was thinking, for once. He was, after all, a night person. He didn't even regret telling her at the moment.

Her blush only deepened. Aoko was slowly getting a strong feeling of paranoia. Was he serious? Was he making fun of her? Did he want something? Did he need money? Did he need something to cover up a crime?

'Is he kidding me?' 

"Are you kidding me?" She simply asked, suddenly feeling stupid for having said that out loud.

"Why would I?" He breathed, half asleep.

'_Is it true that people say the truth in their sleep?'_ Flushing, she looked at her side again, realizing that their faces were not too far apart anymore and that his was illuminated by the moon that shone inside the window.

"Kaito…" she breathed, her heartbeat pounding stronger than ever.

All of a sudden, he opened his eyes, looking straight into hers. Blinking in surprise, Aoko felt embarrassed but she could not tear herself away from his gaze. Instead, they held the intense eye-contact for quite some time, trying to read what the other was thinking. The whole situation held something magical, feeding by the magical aura that sometimes surrounded the magician.

It even felt like magic in its purest form was responsible for what came next. Responsible for their heads moving closer as if pushed by an unknown force. And it definitely was the fault of magic that what happened next happened.

Before they knew it, their lips were already touching and everything around them magically disappeared. Nothing mattered, nothing existed but the other. The two pairs of eyes closed immediately as lips pressed against lips and Kaito couldn't help the hand that automatically came up to caress one of her cheeks. The kiss was full of affection and at the same time marked with innocence.

The time passed by slowly but neither moved, enjoying this new experience too much. As one of them pulled away first, it really didn't matter who did nor did they know it, their eyes slowly opened and locked. Gazing deeply at each other, they very slowly started realizing what had just happened and jerked far away from the other.

'Oh my god!!!' 

"I'm sorry!" She quickly stuttered, her hands covering her mouth.

"No, I am sorry!" he replied, backing away from her a little more as if the temptation still existed. But the moment was definitely over and where affection had been a few moments ago there was now horror and puzzlement.

"I better…" He made a move to stand up, signaling that he was ready and willing to sleep somewhere else.

"No, stay here. I don't want you to sleep uncomfortably," she persisted, and with a hand reached out to Kaito, not wanting him to have to pay for something that she thought was her fault. "Please, Kaito. Look, I am really sorry. Nothing happened, ok?" Aoko offered while she was at the same time totally aware of the fact that what she was telling was a complete lie.

Kaito looked at her thoroughly for a few, long instances then gulped down something nasty before giving in and laying back down. "Right."

He sighed out. "Nothing happened." It sounded like he was trying to verify himself of the truth behind those words, forcing them to sink in his mind and start making sense.

Easier said than done.

"Okay." Aoko lay back down herself and pulled the cover to her chin. Her heart-beat hadn't stopped its powerful, record-time throbbing just as his own hadn't either. They knew that what had just happened should have never happened and as Aoko muttered a quiet "'Night" and turned her back to him, she could already feel the hot, silent tears run down her face. She was so scared that he would never talk to her again and that she had messed up big time. Certain that he had hated it and hating herself for forcing herself on him, she cried her bitter tears without making any sound.

'_Why is it, that one of the best experiences in my life could, at the same time, lead to the worst experience that I can think of?'_ Aoko thought sadly, fearing that Kaito might all together stop wanting to be near her or even her friend.

Kaito next to her gulped painfully as he heard her soft sobs. Immediately, he regretted everything, including being born. How could he, big ass and stupid foot-to-mouth candidate, force himself on a pure being like her? Didn't he promise himself to always protect her? And what was he doing? Going and kissing her without thinking about her feelings. God, he felt like a piece of crap.

The more as he, blushing, had to admit that it had felt absolutely divine. He had often kissed girls or women, of course only on the cheek or back of the hand, in order to get a desired effect and mostly while being Kid, but never had it felt like this. Not one of those kisses could outweigh this simple and light, amazing kiss that they had just shared. Again, his trained ears perceived a quiet, sobbing sound from the girl next to him and his heart sank yet again.

'_I am such a stupid, ignorant fool. I am so mad at myself that I can not even think about a proper insult. And I call myself a professional, my ass.'_

He made a promise to never talk about this or come too close to her again, ignoring the whole affair just like the painful pounding inside his chest that was protesting, before resting on the futon and spending a long, very long, night trying to fall asleep and forget what had just happened. But didn't succeed.

Aoko was feeling the same way as she tried hard to keep her heart from combusting and her head from spinning. Needless to say, that from that point on, both their nights passed by slowly and miserably, with no sleep for either of them.

The next morning had been just as bad. Wanting to avoid a really awkward moment in the morning, he got up as soon as the sun rose, silent and graceful as a cat. He neatly folded his bed-things, taking his time since distraction was a wonderful thing before dressing and sitting down on the couch. Pulling his knees up to his body, he encircled them with his arms and sat still, looking over at the, still, softly lit contours of the futon and the apparently sleeping girl.

Kaito sighed quietly as he looked at Aoko, his chin on his bent knees, wishing he had any idea what to do. He had thought the whole night about it and had come up with nothing, except to wait and see what would happen in the morning.

Aoko was laying in the futon, feeling like crying again as she felt Kaito get up and put his pillow and blanket away. But she lay still and said nothing, tried to breathe quietly and not even move a muscle. Not even as she felt his burning gaze at the back of her head.

To make it short, even with Kaito getting up earlier, the morning had still been awkward. Aoko was sick of this, knowing she could not stay in bed forever although some part of her wished she could.

"Good morning." She had almost whispered in his direction, looking at the ground.

"Morning." He answered quietly, not able to meet her eyes as well.

"Did you… sleep well?"

He thought a moment about it before mentally sighing again. "Yeah." He lied. "And you?"

Aoko looked at her feet. "Me too." She lied as well. "What are we going to do now?"

"I thought we could have breakfast and go back home, if that's all right with you?"

She simply nodded and went to make the bed and gather her things, dressing while using the bathroom. After that, there wasn't much talking. They did as he said, have breakfast quietly, never making eye-contact either before hasten to the train. Aoko couldn't remember having ever experienced more awkward hours in her whole life and Kaito was definitely sharing the feeling.

Not only wouldn't they talk or look at each other in fear of making eye-contact but whenever somebody as much as brushed the other accidentally, both would jerk heavily and jump away, constantly avoiding any contact at all.

The next day they had school. Aoko had started a first, shy attempt to talk to him to which he had reacted rather sensitively, almost touchily. Nobody knew why and she was telling herself that it was her fault. Sad and rejected, she spent the rest of the day wandering through the world, not speaking more than she absolutely had to.

The next day, Tuesday morning which had been today actually, Aoko had tried again, asking Kaito how he was but he had ignored her cruelly and she could feel her heart shatter before causing his bones to do the same.

Later, she regretted everything. From hitting Kaito to the kiss in the mountains. It was her fault. If she hadn't forced him to sleep in the futon, it wouldn't have happened. If she hadn't tried a forced conversation on Kaito this morning, she wouldn't have had to hit him. It was all odd and Aoko was down, feeling horrible.

Even more so as she realized that she did not really regret the kiss because it had been beautiful. But now, all that it was a last memory of a happy time with her childhood friend.

She turned around on her bed as she felt the tears coming up and curled to a ball as she sobbed in her pillow, wishing she'd understand guys.


	4. The Ceresa treasure

Hey! Love you guys for loving my story, that's all I have to say, really. I can die a happy woman now XD Okok, not yet coz this is not finished but you know what I mean, hehe. Enjoy you dear people! It's getting better and better!

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**Chapter eighteen – The Ceresa treasure**

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"Doesn't that look absolutely amazing?" An excited, female voice asked her partner.

"Yeah." A not so excited, male voice answered her. _'Just like the last fifteen objects.' _

"Aren't you glad that we came here?" She smiled at him.

"Oh yeah." _'Are you kidding me???'_

"Hihi, and we didn't even reach the main attraction yet." She was pointing at a small, open door with a sign next to it that displayed the famous treasure.

Shinichi looked at his overly excited fiancée, her beaming face, shining eyes and big smile… He couldn't help but smile along with her. No matter how much of a bore and a waste of time he thought this whole exposition thing was, seeing Ran so excited about something that it shone right through her and smile at him in the amazing and enchanting way that was hers…he was sure he would endure way more unpleasant and way more boring things than that.

They walked on and came to a large room with security guards everywhere. In the middle of it, there was a huge glass-cube with a reflector on its top. The casket was filled with Spanish coins, gold bars, jewelery, pearls, assorted silver, and gems in all kind of different colors and in the middle there was a white silk-pillow with a blood-red diamond on top.

"So this is it, huh?" Shinichi looked at the vitreous cube that contained the legendary Ceresa treasure.

"Yeah. Isn't it beautiful? Do you see the big, clear-red diamond in the middle? That's the famous Ceresa diamond. A very wealthy Spanish nobleman once ordered it from faraway Russia. It was a present for his wife, who he loved very much. He named it Ceresa, which means 'Cherry' in Spanish, because of the cherry-red lips of his beloved and because cherries were her favorite fruit. The value of this fist-size, round stone that you see there is incredible."

"What happened then?" Shinichi asked, almost hanging on her lips and on her sweet voice. She was really good at telling stories.

_'I wonder if she'll tell stories to our kids as well.'_ He blushed involuntarily at his own thoughts, looking back from her face to the red gem. _'What a foolish thought!' _he told himself. _'Of course she will! This is my sweet Ran we are talking about here.'_

He smiled and stepped closer to her, wounding one arm tighter around her waist, keeping her close to him. Ran smiled back and leaned slightly towards him before she went on.

"This nobleman was the founder of a very successful tea company back then. He had two sons but it was the way people handled things back then: the first son got everything while the second son had to get by with what was left. After a particularly big fight, he took the diamond and the next ship to Egypt, where he wanted to make good money with his knowledge of tea and have a good life with the money that he'd get when selling the diamond.

"As his bad luck would have it, on the second night, a mighty sea-storm broke the ship and it sank. Only a few passengers survived and it will surprise you if I told you that our young lad found his way to a little boat where he now floated through the Middle Sea all alone. He was again lucky as a ship found him only one day later but then again not that lucky. The ship had been full of pirates and as they saw what he had in his bag, they killed him and took the Ceresa diamond with them.

"Nobody knows why they kept the name; maybe they liked it. But as they started a pirate fleet, it was well known and feared in the Middle Sea as the Ceresa fleet. The captain found a small cave, as I have already told you, and there they saved and increased their fortune until the British Crown messed with them. It was the time of the British Empire and they wouldn't put up with the pirates robbing their ships any longer. They destroyed their fleet and took the considerable fortune the pirates had gathered up to this point. You know the rest, I've told you before."

"Yeah. Man, what a story. Poor guy." Shinichi pulled back to look at her face, suddenly grinning. "You are a walking history book."

Ran giggled but didn't respond, only stick her tongue out to him. Shinichi chuckled. "Even like this you are cute. How do you do that?"

A brightly smiling Ran looked surprised at him, and then hugged Shinichi around the middle. "You are only saying that because you want to get out of here, admit it."

"Huh?" He managed to look completely surprised, shocked and innocent all at once.

"Oh come on, I've known you for you know exactly _how_ long."

"Well, did I succeed?" A sweet and cute expression on his face caused Ran to giggle harder.

"All right. We'll walk through the rest quickly, ok? I only wanted to see this beautiful ensemble, anyway."

"Yes!" He held her tightly with one arm, delighted at these new prospects.

"But you have to treat me to an ice-cream."

"If I have to." He tried to look troubled then smiled and bent down to give the equally smiling girl in his arms a sweet kiss.

"As long as you don't want a diamond this big to match the color of your lips." He teased, tracing the contours of her lips with a finger.

Ran smiled at him and started walking ahead. "No, not now. For the wedding then." She turned to grin at Shinichi.

"Yeah." He chuckled before realizing what she had just said and his face fell. "What? Ran, you are kidding, right? Ran? Raaan!"

She giggled and kept walking, her hands at her backside.

---

The next morning, Shinichi walked into the kitchen, yawning and stretching his still sleeping limbs. The first thing he saw was Ran as she hovered over the breakfast and he couldn't help his smile.

"Morning." He walked up behind her and hugged her lightly, kissing her cheek.

Ran smiled. "Good morning." She gave him a quick kiss. "Slept well?"

"Oh yeah. Man, this all smells so good."

"I made breakfast." She told him almost proudly with childish delight.

"You are spoiling me, my dear."

He told her with dreamy expression. She giggled and pushed him down on a chair. "I'm almost finished."

Shinichi looked with warm expression after the humming girl, grinned to himself and opened the newspapers as suddenly his cell phone rang.

"Jeez, this early in the morning…" he groaned out and reached over for the phone. Ran only looked at him. "Yeah? Oh, Megure-keibu, good morning. What? No, not yet, why? Right now?… I see… yeah. Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can. Yes. Bye."

Ran walked up beside him and laid a hand on his shoulder. "You are going?"

"Yeah, I am sorry. He said it'd be important that I go there as soon as possible but why did he ask if I had read the newspaper yet?" He was already opening the papers and didn't have to look for long. He read along with the headline.

"_'Famous Ceresa treasure stolen. _

_Kaito Kid appeared one day earlier _

_than his official announcement told to steal the infamous Ceresa treasure and left two policemen and one civilian behind, critically injured. One is fighting with his life in a hospital at this moment. All of Tokyo is asking: Did Kid go crazy? _

_Read more on page two and three'. _

What the hell is going on?"

"It's the one that we saw yesterday in the museum, right?" Ran was looking over his shoulder at the picture in the newspaper.

Shinichi nodded. "I can't believe he injured people. As far as I know that has never happened before. And why would he steal it one day too early, too. That doesn't make any sense."

"Perhaps it was an accident? Or he did it by mistake?"

Shinichi had to grin. "No, nothing Kid does is by mistake. He is a professional, you know that and it's not his style at all. This is really strange." He looked back at the article and re-read it while already starting to brood over this new case.

Ran sighed. She knew this expression. It meant that nothing could catch his attention now. "Shinichi…" her tone of voice was definitely warning. Maybe that's why he looked up at her.

"Just to make myself clear, you won't leave this house without a proper breakfast." She announced and didn't even wait for his reply, simply walked over to the counter and finished with the breakfast that she then served.

"It's like we are already married!" Shinichi told her but his soft voice and smile on his face told clearly that he didn't think it was a bad thing.

Ran blushed none the less but allowed him to sling an arm around her waist as he pulled her closer and looked up at her while resting his head on her stomach. She laid a hand on top of his head. "That's good." She countered in a teasingly threatening voice. "Then you can start adjusting to the fact that you better do what I tell you, if you know what's good for you."

Shinichi grinned an askew grin to which she responded in kind. Then her features softened.

"Eat up, honey. I am sure you will solve this case and return the beautiful treasure." She kissed the top of his head. He held her tightly for another moment.

"I hope so."

Then he let go of her and started eating together with his beautiful wife to be, his mind still bugging him with one question.

_'Why would Kid hurt people?' _

---

Forty minutes later, he arrived at the Tokyo police department and was greeted by loud shouts that he had heard already from the moment on that he had entered the building.

"Are you trying to tell me my job?" a deep, male voice rang about the place.

"Why won't you listen to me?" a considerably younger, but not at all less determined, voice answered.

"I have been doing this since before you were even born!"

"Maybe that's too long."

"WHAT are you trying to tell me, kid?"

"What the evidence is telling. Didn't you look at the clock? Honestly. Not only was your "Kid" one day too early, nooo. The robbery started exactly two minutes and forty-six seconds later than the announced time. What does that tell us?"

"That you have too much free time?"

"No. With all due respect, you of all people should know the habits of Kid. He would never a) announce a robbery and act one day earlier, and b) come later than the announced time. And a very big c) he would never, not that I believe in the good side of that thief, but he would never hurt people; that's a fact. Especially not so many and so badly that they had to stay in the hospital. I hope you can follow. Consequently, what can we conclude from this facts?"

"That you are a wise-cracking, little…"

"What's going on?" Shinichi asked Megure, who was looking at the two with his arms crossed in front of his big stomach. Kogoro, who was standing next to Megure, had greeted Shinichi with a nod of his head, and then went back to watching the spectacle in front of them. Takagi was standing next to Kogoro and looked up as well when Shinichi entered, and greeted him happily.

"Kudo-kun, I am so glad to see you. They've been going on about this for an hour already." He turned and looked at the combatants: Nakamori, leader of the Kid investigation, and the young detective from England, Saguru Hakuba. "It's horrible. Saguru-kun has big doubts that it was Kid who stole the treasure yesterday. He told his deductions to his father who immediately mobilized the whole Tokyo police force and even called for help from Osaka, since the owner of the treasure is pressuring us for reinforcement."

"Osaka?" Shinichi tore his gaze away from the two fighting and looked at Megure. "Does that mean…?"

"That's right. It does mean exactly that." A voice, one familiar to Shinichi and Kogoro, made Hakuba and Nakamori stop arguing and all five pair of eyes turned to the three men who were entering the room.

"Hattori!" Shinichi looked at Heiji, one eyebrow arched and a slightly puzzled expression on his face.

"Hi Kudo. It's been a while." Heiji grinned stupidly at Shinichi and this grin he retorted.

"Yeah right, three days." They grinned.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, since most of Tokyo's police are on vacation or occupied with other cases and the rest of them are messing up, they called the Osaka headquarters for help. So we were sent to help you out with this case." He looked back at his father, Hattori Heizo, head of the Osaka police whom people, for a good reason, called "Heizo the devil" judging from the grim appearance that he had, of course only behind his back, and to Toyama Koichibucho, Kazuha's father who had, for years now, worked together with Heizo successfully.

Shinichi looked confused at Megure who shrugged his shoulders guiltily. "It was an order, what could I do?"

"But obviously a waste of time and money." Hakuba neared, tapping his trench-coat with both hands as if to dust it off. "It is clear that there is no flaw in my deductions, no matter what Nakamori-keibu here thinks." He looked with narrowed eyes at the older Inspector who glared back. "My deductions are based on solid facts."

"Well, why don't we start slow and tell the whole story to our guests?" Megure tried to save the situation, but Heizo interfered.

"We know what this is about by the articles in the newspapers. So, would you keep it short and stick to the important facts?" Heizo had an air that clearly told you to not mess with him and Megure, who was one head shorter than the Osaka police chief, was almost intimidated.

"O-of course. The head of the museum is threatening to force us to pay for the treasure if we cannot retrieve it and I don't need to mention that that would be a huge disaster and that there's no way we could afford it.

"We must retrieve the treasure and this fake Kid or not fake, that doesn't really matter. I don't have to repeat how urgent this is.

Aside from the Kid incident, we've increased cases of robberies and smuggling affairs going on. The details are all in your file-folders. We are suspecting a syndicate behind this, a very big fish but we couldn't lay our finger on the source yet. In any case, we need to find it otherwise there'll be coming up bad times for the Tokyo economy."

"What has been smuggled?" Hakuba asked Megure.

"W-well, at the border closest to China we were able to capture three containers that were meant for Tokyo. One was filled with stuffed toys, one with electronic toy animals and one was filled with sweets."

"Sweets?" The group looked astonished at Megure.

"Yeah, all kind of sweets with Hello Kitty faces, famous manga and comic characters and so on. It was really ridiculous. They were meant for Europe."

Nakamori was shaking his head. "Criminals who smuggle sweets…"

Kogoro was doing the same from the other side of the room. "Yeah, what happened to the good old drugs-smuggling?" 

"Or alcohol, or cigarettes?" Nakamori went on.

"Nobody has any standards anymore." Kogoro finished.

Both men sighed out in unison, missing the good old times.

"We don't know what else they could be smuggling, that's why we have to catch them as soon as possible with close to no leads at all.

"The three people we were able to catch just won't talk. But one of them is stupid and he let something slip: that there are more somewhere here in Tokyo and they're about to go overseas soon. Thus our suspicion of the syndicate but we have neither definite location nor a name. All we know is that we have to find them and eliminate them." Megure made a dramatic pause. "Any questions?"

"How do you know these things were meant to come to Tokyo?" Heiji asked.

"It was on the delivery note."

"Do you suppose these smugglers have something to do with the stolen treasure or this fake Kid?" Shinichi asked Megure, everybody ignoring Nakamori who was protesting at the "fake Kid".

"We don't think so, but we cannot exclude this possibility for sure. Other than that, I wish you all good luck on your investigations and hope for a soon success."

"I'll do this my way," Kogoro announced, his usual self-sufficient "Sleeping Kogoro"-grin on his face. "And I think I already have a hot lead."

Shinichi couldn't help but doubt this.

"So will I. I've been after that thief for all my life and he never acted this wacky. I will catch him myself and knock some sense in his head. I'll make him pay and I definitely need no help for it!" Nakamori stood up tall as well.

"I'll work by myself as well, as usual. But…" Hakuba took out his golden watch from his pocket that was attached to a golden chain. "After I've had my tea, that is."

Heiji rolled his eyes at this.

"That's great. We have so many leads that it'd be indeed useful if all of us follow different ones. Tomorrow at 12 we'll all meet back here and compare notes. Until then, good luck to you all and feel free to call if you have any question left."

"I wonder which of our youngsters is going to catch Kid," Takagi mused to Megure in an excited voice.

"There's only ONE person who'll catch Kid and that's ME!!" Nakamori screamed at the shocked Takagi and stormed out the room.

Kogoro followed and waited a second longer on the door in case Shinichi might want to join him and his "hot lead" but as he didn't came he walked out. Hakuba excused himself and exited the room as well, followed by Megure and poor Takagi whose heart was still beating in record time.

Heizo took his things and turned to talk to Heiji.

"Let's get going, son. We should bring our stuff to the hotel first and then look at all the files again for clues."

Shinichi and Heiji shared a gaze and out of nowhere, both nodded.

"Dad, I'll go with Kudo. We'll do this our way."

Heizo fixed both young men with a critical look for quite some time. Then he turned and spoke a last time before disappearing with Toyama-senior.

"Do what you think is best." He really did not feel like arguing, especially since he knew how stubborn his son could be.

Like father, like son.

---

"Do you think this is really okay with your father?" Shinichi asked as he pushed the door to his house open.

"Yeah, don't worry. I rather not…face those two, him and my father, at the moment if I can help it. The flight to Tokyo was awkward enough, believe me. You saved me in there." Heiji answered, following him with his bag in one hand.

"Why? What happened?"

Heiji hesitated for a moment but found no reason to hold back. "Kazuha and I told our families about the engagement."

"When?"

"Today, actually…A little before I got the call from Otaki…" Heiji felt his head warm up as he looked away from his friend.

To his surprise, Shinichi did not tease him, simply nodded compassionately in understanding. "Now I understand."

_'Must be the fact of being involved in a new case that keeps him down.'_ Heiji wondered.

"So they had no time to react in any way, right?"

"Exactly."

"Ah, don't worry, Hattori. I am sure everything will turn out for the best."

"Yeah, you are right, probably. Anyway, where will I be sleeping?"

"In one of our guest rooms. Come, I'll show you."

Shinichi lead Heiji up the stairs and to the room that was always prepared for guests.

"I hope it's okay."

"Yeah, it's fine, thanks." Heiji answered him as he looked around the well-lit room that contained a bed, a table, a closet, lamps…but all in all the furniture resembled the classic style of the rest of the house.

"Shinichi?" A feminine voice rang through the house. Shinichi walked to the door and stuck his head out.

"I'm here."

Ran came running up the stairs and talked on as she walked towards him with a smile.

"Here you are! I was just wondering if you have seen my bra. I've searched everywhere but I can't…" She stopped immediately as she had approached enough to see Heiji standing behind Shinichi.

Blushing, she turned to him. "Oh, Hattori-kun, welcome! I didn't hear you come."

Heiji grinned. "I noticed."

Ran blushed but chose to overplay her embarrassment. "It's great to see you again, even though it's been only three days. Didn't you bring Kazuha-chan with you?"

"No. I didn't want her to get involved with this case."

"I understand. That's really sweet of you. Well, we'll talk later. I'm going to go and get a few things so I can prepare dinner. I bet you two are starving already."

Both guys' faces immediately lit up in agreement. Ran chuckled. "I thought so. Detectives are predictable, aren't they?"

"Not true!" both guys answered immediately, turning to look at the other in shock. As they realized they had said it at the same time, they looked away from each other again. Ran only chuckled.

"Yeah, I see. Anyway, Shinichi, I need my b-bracelet, you know, the one from yesterday." She flushed, having said the last bit in a quiet voice.

Shinichi grinned. "The red one?" She blushed deeper as she nodded and thus, his grin widened.

"I think I've seen it in the bathroom, you know, on the heater."

"Right. Thanks." She gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "See you later. Bye, Hattori-kun." She waved at Heiji and hurried to get away, cheeks still flustered.

An odd silence fell upon the two friends as they were, once again, alone. Suddenly, the almost audible grin from Heiji turned into laughter as he patted Shinichi on the shoulder.

"Man, you are a machine."

"Oh, shut up."


	5. House Call

_Happy lots of you agree with me and like this story! Yayy!! THANKS for all the reviews, love them! And here's KID! Oh I just love him! It can only keep getting beter when he appears! Keep telling me how you like the story, hehe. And believe me, I still have GREAT treats ahead for you guys! OH yessss!!!_

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**Chapter nineteen - House call**

Some time later, Shinichi was sitting in the library, looking through some files while Heiji took some of his things out of his suitcase. He sat down on the bed and looked at the ceiling, sighing out.

Inwardly, he cursed that stupid guy who had to steal that treasure, Kid or not. He could have spent such a nice time with his fiancée but nooo, he had to run to Tokyo and find some silly gold bars.

_'Just great.'_ Heiji thought, sighing out again.

Heiji stretched his arms out above his head, deep in thoughts. Only this morning, Kazuha and he had arranged a nice gathering with their parents. Tea and cake to calm the spirits and in order to prove his point (Heiji really was not a person to talk freely of his feelings), he had taken Kazuha by the shoulder and pressed a passionate kiss on her lips.

No need to mention how shocked their parents had been thus the kids had decided to give them some time to reconsider. While taking a walk, their parents were already celebrating in secret, but Heiji didn't know that. The only thing that he knew is that in one moment he was trying to reassure his fiancée, kissing her and in the next moment his cursed cell-phone had been ringing.

To make it short, Otaki from the Osaka Police Headquarters had asked him to go to Tokyo for an emergency case, his father and future father-in-law already being on their way.

He had walked home slowly, with a sad girl clinging to him.

"Come on, don't make such a sad face. You know I will be back," He told Kazuha softly.

She only held him tighter. "Yeah, but who knows when or if something…"

"Kazuha…"His hand was rubbing her back. "Nothing will happen to me, you will see."

She was still looking downwards, concerned, as they reached his house and walked to his room to gather his things.

"Let's see, I need a shirt, pants, socks…uhm…that was it. I'm done."

Kazuha looked at the three of four pieces of clothing that he had thrown in his case and actually had to laugh out. "Oh Heiji."

"What?" He had blinked at her, obviously not seeing her point.

She had already walked over to his closet and taken out more clothes, another set of pants, sleeping clothes, more socks, two more shirt, a sweater… The ones he had thrown inside the case she took out and folded them neatly before placing them carefully back inside. All the while, Heiji had watched her with tilted head, observing every move of her body and her hands.

"You are so good at this," he told her when she was finished.

Kazuha smiled at the praise. "No, you simply suck at it."

She giggled at his shocked expression and walked over to the boy. "Heiji, where is your…"

"Oh, that." He pulled out a chain from inside his shirt. "Here."

Kazuha smiled at him again and took the good luck charm that she had given him long ago. She took it in her hands and stroked it with her thumb. Then she kissed it then smiled at him softly. "It will take care of you while I can't."

Even if Heiji had tried, he wouldn't have managed to resist the strong urge to take her in his arms and kiss her right then. And he didn't. She wound her arms around his neck and enjoyed the loving caress that was supposed to tell her that he knew.

"I will miss this," she said, pulling her head back to rest against his, forehead to forehead.

"I will hurry, I promise."

"I know." She stroked his cheek gently with one hand. He returned the caress, stroking over her head in a reassuring manner. Both were content at the moment just feeling the warmth of the other and the peace that they felt surrounded with.

"We should go. Your flight is going to fly soon."

"Right…" He sighed and pulled away, walking over to his case to close it.

"Take a jacket. You never know how cold it is."

Heiji turned to smile at her with one raised eye-brow. Kazuha blushed as she realized what she had said and looked at her feet. "Well, wouldn't want you to catch a cold…"

With quick steps, he was already by her side again and taking the surprised girl in his arms, hugging her tightly to his chest and spinning her around. She squealed in surprise but let him hug her, holding on his arms. Crushing her to his chest, he gave her a passionate kiss that should make sure she would not forget him over the next days, which she melted against.

"I really will miss you." He whispered then, hugging her again.

Kazuha smiled. "Me too."

Half an hour later, they were standing at the airport and his father was already going inside. Heiji turned one last time to the young woman who was looking sadly at him.

"This is it…" he announced, not happy himself.

Her gaze turned serious. "Heiji, why can't I come with you…"

"No!" He almost screamed energetically. Kazuha looked shocked at him and he quickly calmed down and took one of her cheeks in her hand. "Tokyo called Osaka for help; this shows how difficult and dangerous this case might be. There's no way I'd risk your life over this."

Her eyes showed that she was about to panic at his words. "No, don't worry. I will be fine. I have experience, remember? And the good luck charm, so nothing can happen to me."

He grinned confidently at her. Kazuha had to giggle at his silly expression. She hugged him around the neck slowly.

"Please, take care."

"I will."

"And don't flirt!"

Heiji grinned widely at that. "I would never even dream of it." Kazuha smiled at the boy in front of her.

"You had better."

A voice rang through the room, announcing that passengers who wanted to fly to Tokyo should better hurry and go inside the plane.

Sighing, Heiji bend down and gave her a lingering, sweet kiss that was to bring them through the next days.

She responded to it and held him down for a few more moments as he wanted to pull away. She held his hand as he walked over to the counter. Giving her hand a last squeeze, he walked inside the hallway after showing his ticket. She could look after him for the hallway to the door he had to pass in order to reach the plane was made of thick glass.

Remembering something, she ran after him and pounded on the glass. Heiji turned and looked at her curiously, wondering if he had forgotten something.

Kazuha laid a hand on the glass and muttered something to him.

"I love you."

Heiji smiled heart-meltingly as he made out what she was trying to tell him. Placing his hand over hers on the glass, he muttered his reply.

"I love you, too."

Kazuha smiled, obviously relieved, and they remained like this for several moments until a stewardess started telling the passengers to hurry up.

He had walked inside the plane with a last glance at the young and beautiful woman who had her hands folded in front of her chest as if in a silent prayer.

_'And now, here I am when I could be at home, in my own warm bed with her warm body and…cuddling.'_ He blushed at his own train of thoughts.

_'This isn't fair. Another reason to catch that guy fast and beat the crap out of him.' _

Heiji sighed out and involuntarily found himself smiling a minute later. Now matter how stupid his situation was, he still had something beautiful to look forward to when he came home, and this was worth everything.

The silly grin on his face and the warm and fuzzy feeling inside his body spread and he slowly stood up and exited the room.

_'I better help, Kudo. It'll go faster that way.' _

---

Darkness had already replaced the day-light and had laid its encrypting veil over the artificially illuminated city of Tokyo.

Shinichi and Heiji had been in the bedroom of Shinichi and looking through some files on the recent case, talking the facts over again. After some time, Heiji stretched his arms above his head.

"It's getting late."

"Yeah, it is. I wonder when Ran will return, I am starving."

"Me too. What are we going to do now? About this stupid case?"

"I don't know, we'll have to think of something." Shinichi answered his friend, deep in thoughts. "It really is some tough mystery, this one. Why in the world would-"

He was cut off as suddenly, Heiji looked with shocked expression at something behind Shinichi.

"K-Kudo!"

"What is it?"

"There is…there is a…I mean, it's K-K…KKKK…" Heiji's expression turned almost scared and he pointed at something behind Shinichi's back with his extended finger.

"What? What is there?"

"God, Kudo! Outside the window, man! Look outside the window!"

Shinichi turned around and as he recognized the dark figure, turned and chuckled at Heiji.

"Why don't you open the window for him?"

Heiji's face fell. In fact, it almost seemed as if his mouth had just dropped open to hit his chest as if Shinichi's suggestion was one of the most indecent things he had ever heard.

"WHAT?" he barked at Shinichi, unconsciously backing away a little from his friend whom he had always considered to be one of the sanest people that he knew. No need to mention that this picture of Shinichi was dangerously swaying at the moment.

Shinichi grinned at him and turned to walk to the window. To Heiji's horror and complete disbelief, Shinichi reached out for the handle and opened the window. An instant later, an undefined shape entered in a whirlpool of white fog. As it came to a halt in the middle of the room, the unformed figure started shaping to the point where everybody could see that it was a young, handsome man dressed in a white tuxedo with a monocle and silk-hat. The likewise white cape that he wore did not look ridiculous but added to the gentleman-aura that he was surrounded with. All in all, one must admit without envy, that Kaito Kid truly was a remarkable appearance.

However, a certain detective from Osaka entertained different thoughts at the moment and not one of them was occupied with the topic of Kid looking remarkable. He gaped at the approaching man in disbelief, looking around the room for exits and possible weapons.

"Good evening, gentlemen." The guest spoke calmly, almost solemnly.

"It's been a long time." Shinichi answered. Heiji was too occupied with staring back and forth between the two to even think about answering. Or blinking. Or breathing…

"That's not true and you know it as well as I do. I know that you saw me in the mountains like, what, four days ago?" Kid said. Shinichi had to grin at this, knowing what he was saying resembled the truth. "I am sorry to bother you at this late hour."

"I am sure you have your reasons. Actually, I was expecting you one of those days. Why don't we sit down and you tell us the reason for your visit?"

"An excellent idea. Are you sure your friend is all right?" Kaito pointed at Heiji, whose face had considerably paled at Shinichi's suggestion and the familiar way the two were talking.

"Oh, that's right. He doesn't know about our …excursions or the showdown with the organization." Shinichi explained and walked over to pat his friend's shoulder. "Hattori, it's fine. He won't do anything bad, he is on our side…kinda…Well, actually it's a truce but you can relax, really."

As Heiji calmed down a little bit, he gripped Shinichi's upper arm slowly but firmly, keeping the blood from flowing to Shinichi's fingers for a few moments. He smiled a forced, clearly forced, smile at Shinichi, then at Kid and finally spoke. "Would you please excuse us for a moment?"

"Certainly."

Heiji dragged Shinichi a few feet further away and was gaping out in pain until he was able to free his arm from his friend's grip.

"Would you, PLEASE, explain yourself really quickly??" Heiji's look would have scared a lot of people, honestly. Good thing Shinichi knew him too well to be intimidated that easily.

"Look, I'm sorry I forgot to tell you about this. He helped me with that Black Organization-case, you know. He was just there and helped out and ever since we have this…I don't know, it's not exactly a friendship but we help each other out."

At Heiji's horrified expression, Shinichi grinned and quickly added. "Not in that way. I have nothing to do with his robberies. Like I told you, it's a truce that we try to keep as long as possible. Doesn't mean I let him do whatever he pleases but…I help him out if I can and he helps me sometimes, it's kind of complicated. Look, this is a rather long story. I'll tell you later."

"He was in the mountains as well?"

"It appears so. I saw him the evening we went dancing together. It was a coincidence though that he happened to be there as well. I am sure he is about to explain to us what he was doing or looking for, as well."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Shinichi shrugged. "I never felt like it was important. In addition to that, it always seemed like you had enough problems on your own. Now, come on. Let's sit down and listen to what he has to say. Trust me."

Raising an eye-brow in doubt, Heiji sighed and visibly relaxed. They returned and found Kid waiting, leaning against a wall.

"Is everything ok?"

"Yes. Our Hattori was simply surprised to see you, overwhelmingly so, that's all."

"I take it then, that you did not tell him about _us_, yet?"

"That's right. I haven't had the opportunity yet."

"Well, in that case I apologize for intruding without warning."

"It's okay!" Heiji spoke, waving with his hand.

"Come on." Shinichi walked to the door. "Let's go downstairs to the living room."

Heiji followed but Kid stood still and did not move a bit. As he realized this, Shinichi turned to look at him curiously. "What is it?"

"What about…" Kid did not say more.

"Ran? Don't worry, she's out shopping for dinner. We are completely alone."

"Pity…" Kid commented as he started walking towards the open door and past Shinichi. "I would have loved to see her again. Such a beautiful woman, indeed."

"Excuse me?" Shinichi gaped at him. Heiji turned to them to get a better view while Shinichi attempted a kick in direction of Kid's butt. "Don't you dare, you incarnation of a flying rat. Don't you **dare** come near her!"

Kaito Kid laughed loudly and walked away from Shinichi with quick steps. The latter was obviously sulking as he followed the thief down the stairs. Heiji blinked, trying to comprehend what he had just seen. And very slowly, a grin spread on his face as he started to have fun. He followed the both young men down to the living room, knowing this would become rather amusing.

---

As Shinichi returned with a tea kettle, he found the two young men sitting at the table, opposite of each other. They were eyeing the other and a thick tension lay between them.

"Maybe I should formally introduce you two, although you already know each other. Kind of. Anyway, Kaito Kid, meet Hattori Heiji. And vice versa."

The two men shook hands and strangely, Heiji immediately felt a little more comfortable in his skin. He knew better than to question Kudo. He knew exactly that he was more than trustworthy so when he told him that he could trust this magician-freak, then he would.

However, he must have still kept a strange expression on his face, as if something was nagging on him that he didn't dare voice, yet.

"What is it?" Kid asked Heiji. The latter hesitated and said nothing at first.

"Hattori, relax. I am telling you, you can talk as openly as you would with only me here."

"Do you know his…" Heiji stopped himself from talking but, looking at Shinichi, touched one of his eyes to make his point.

"Do I know his true identity? How could I not, after so many encounters? But it's up to him whether or not he wants to…"

"Oh, I certainly will tell him. If I have learned one thing, than it's that you can trust detectives, especially when you want to work with them. Well, not every detective. I wouldn't dare of dreaming to tell Hakuba about my true identity but…Anyway, Kudo trusts you so I will tell you, but when the time is right. I hope you understand."

"Oh? You know Hakuba Saguru?"

Kid had to grin involuntarily. "I do. Pretty well, if I might add but that's a different story…"

"To tell later, right?" Shinichi looked kind of strictly at Kid, growing impatient.

"That's right. And now for the reason for my visit. I know what you are after and I think I could be of use to you. I have information."

"Actually, one of my theories about the disappeared treasure had been you stealing it." Heiji had to admit, looking around carefully to see whether his statement had caused dismay.

Surprised, he found out that Kid only laughed.

"Well, that had been the plan. Until I had to read in the newspapers today, that one day before my announcement, means yesterday, an impostor has dressed up as myself and has stolen my prey. Of course, the idiotic police did not notice anything at first. Typical, and then they call themselves so clever. I was lucky though, that that idiot Hakuba proved himself a detective for the first time and explained to them why it had not been the real Kid. But I guess the old Nakamori still doesn't believe it, right?"

"Yeah, I heard, I was there." Shinichi added. "To tell the truth, it was one of my ideas at first that you might have found that gem you were after and this is why you have not stuck to your own rules."

"I wouldn't do that. And I didn't have the opportunity to look at this gem in the first place properly, only that one time I went to the museum on Monday dressed as visitor. That guy who stole it really was bad for my reputation and I can not let it stand like that."

"I understand." Shinichi nodded while Heiji was listening strained. "I knew it wasn't you, though."

"Because of what Hakuba said?"

"Not only. There was a picture of this impostor Kid in the file-collection we got, taken by one of the cameras in the museum." Both Kid and Heiji were looking at Shinichi with big eyes, anxious to know what he had deduced already. "Luckily, it was a colored picture where it's clear for the one who looked that one of his eyes, the right to be precise, is blue while his left is slightly green, an off-shade that is not common but nothing grave. In any case, it'll help us find this guy."

Heiji and Kid were gaping at Shinichi. "Is that how you found out?" Heiji asked, totally impressed.

Shinichi nodded. "Since I knew his eye color is the same in both eyes, it was pretty simple. You should know, as our great Holmes already said, that the little things are infinitely the most important."

Both guys were stuck speechless as they stared at him in open astonishment and couldn't help but being impressed even more. As they said nothing more, a fat grin soon appeared on Shinichi's lips.

"Well, that and the fact that he was wearing the monocle on his left eye and that his nose was bigger and pointier, let alone the fact that the shape of his face is more round than yours and the hair that are more of a hazelnut-brown."

While Heiji was still gaping at the grinning tantei, Kid couldn't suppress a grin of his own.

"I should have known."

"Hehe. Anyway, you were talking about information?"

"That's right. I know for sure, that this impostor is not Japanese and every day around noon he is drinking something at a bar I know of, near the docks."

"Do you know anything about the smuggling that has been going on lately?"

"Not more than what the newspapers said. But I am still looking around."

"Good."

"And…" Heiji spoke. "Just to get a picture…You are here because you can not do it yourself?"

"That's right. Because, as clever as I might be, I am not a detective and I want to make sure to catch those cursed miscreants and give them what they deserve since I know there's more behind this than only that one clown. I am pretty convinced that we would succeed easily against them if we worked together. That's why I am here. Are you gonna help me?"

"Yes." Shinichi answered.

"No." Heiji answered at the same time and both looked at each other.

"What??"

"Hattori, why not?"

"No offense," Heiji looked at Kaito for a moment while saying it, "but how do you know we can trust him?"

"Because I know him and I know that it will be a lot easier together with him."

"But we, you and me, are detectives and we are helping a thief, that's not right. We can't help him retrieve the treasure; who knows if he'll run away with it or not?" Heiji had lowered his voice.

"He doesn't need the treasure. If anything, he wants the diamond, but that's not even for certain and another story which I'll tell you another time. Another thing he wants is to punish these guys for abusing his name. I am certain that we can trust him and I say it'd be better to work together, all right?" Shinichi stared directly and deeply in Heiji's eyes, making clear that he knew exactly what he was talking about.

Heiji looked back and took a long moment to decide, before he sighed and gave in. "Fine, I trust your judgement."

"Good." A triumphant Shinichi turned to Kid. "We're in."

"Great." Kid smiled. "I'll contact you tomorrow so we can go on a tour."

"All right." Shinichi nodded. Kid stood up and the two guys followed suit. "I hope you can forgive my sudden intrusion and interference with this case." He was looking more at Heiji than Shinichi.

"No, it's all right. I trust Kudo."

"You won't regret it. Good evening, gentlemen. I hope you don't mind me taking the same exit as I used to come in."

"It's fine." Shinichi assured.

"Maybe I should wait till the woman of the house comes back. It wouldn't be polite to just disappear without a proper greeting."

At this moment, Shinichi heard the front-door open and quickly turned to the guys. "Hattori, wash the cups, please. And you, out!" He shooed Kaito up the stairs. "It's really NOT necessary for her to see you here, you Casanova."

"I never knew you were this touchy." Kid grinned amused.

"Whatever, I'll see you tomorrow, that'll be enough."

"Right. Good night then."

"See you."

Shinichi watched as a white cape flew out the window and disappeared into the night. He closed the window and quickly walked down the stairs to the kitchen where Ran was already arranging the things she had bought.

"Hi honey." She smiled broadly as she saw him and hurried to hug him.

"Hi." He gave her a quick kiss.

"Can you believe it? Hattori-kun is cleaning the teacups. Isn't it funny?"

"Oh yeah." Shinichi grinned at Heiji who returned it. "Where have you been?"

"I know, I am sorry I took so long but I met Sonoko and you know how we are when we meet."

"Oh yeah, the nightmare of every guy."

"Hey!" She slapped his arm playfully. "Anyway, I better hurry with the dinner. I bet you two are not far from eating me. To tell the truth, I am surprised you haven't eaten each other by now." Ran playfully rubbed across Shinichi's tummy.

He only grinned and wound a strong arm around her waist, pulling her close and bent down to kiss her neck. "Only I can eat you!" He had said it a little more possessive than he wanted but it was how he was feeling. He then gave her a deep and thorough kiss, sweet but passionate at the same time, as if wanting to remind her, along with the rest of the world, that she belonged to him.

_'So they won't forget that you are mine.'_

---

Later that evening, Ran and Shinichi were sitting on the couch, watching television and cuddling. She was sitting on his lap, a blanket around them and their hands were interlocked on her front, since he was hugging her from behind.

"Dinner was great. Thank you," he whispered against her skin, rubbing his nose against the flesh of her neck.

"You are welcome. I am glad that you liked it." Ran answered, tilting her head to the side. "But why are we alone?"

"Why? Does it bother you?" Shinichi teased.

"No, you know that's not it!"

"Hehe, I know. If you mean Hattori, he went to bed right after dinner because today had been a rough day for him. They've told their parents about the engagement today too and he was called here before they had any chance to react."

Ran's eyes widened as she looked at him. "Oh my…I hope he is all right."

"He's dealing all right, no worries."

"I should call Kazuha-chan tomorrow." Shinichi nodded at that. "Did something else happen while I was out?"

Shinichi looked away from her. At his hesitation, she knew immediately what was going on.

"Shinichi, no lies, remember? You promised."

"I know…" he whispered, looking down at their intertwined hands.

"You know you can trust me. What is it?"

"Yeah, I know. Well…you see, while you were away, we had a visitor."

"Who was it?"

As Shinichi hesitated again, Ran gently nudged him, turning her head to look in his eyes. He sighed. How could he deny her anything?

"It was Kid."

"Kaito Kid?"

"Yeah." He almost felt guilty as he answered her astonished question.

To his surprise, Ran stayed calm and only went on looking at him. He expected her to flip, to scream, to tell him how dangerous that was and if he was out of his mind. But she did nothing of the expected.

She, on the other hand, had made a promise to herself that she would not snap too much when mysterious things were involved and to trust him more, means accept his line of work. It was giving him the freedom that he needed and made him trust her more. Her tactic was working well and their relationship was more honest and in harmony than ever. She loved it and at the same time knew that he did as well.

"What did he want?"

"To cooperate with us, actually."

"Why so? Certainly not to simply pass his time."

"He has a personal interest in that matter."

"No wonder poor Hattori-kun went to bed immediately. Did you agree on working together with him?"

Almost afraid, but knowing it had to be the right answer, Shinichi nodded. And waited anxiously how she would react. Ran surprised him again as she cuddled back in his arms and only said the following words.

"Be careful, please."

Shinichi grinned now. "Yeah. You know you can trust me."

"Still. I don't want you to get hurt nor do I want to become a widow before becoming a bride."

He hugged her closer to him, as tightly as he could. "I know."

"And," Ran grinned up at him. "…Kazuha is going to kill me, and you, if something happened to her man."

Shinichi chuckled and bend down to rub his nose against her cheek and temple.

"Are you going to stay here tonight?"

"Do you want me to?"

"Of course I do! But what about your father?"

"I took care of him. You know, cleaned and cooked before coming here. So, that's not the problem."

"What is it then? Hattori?" He felt Ran nod against him. "Don't worry about him." He bent down and started kissing her neck, grinning naughtily against her skin. "You only have to be reeeeally quiet."

Ran sighed loudly, giving in for a moment before gathering her senses and pushing him back. "No way we are going to do that, in this house with your friend sleeping only a few doors away!"

Shinichi gave her a pouting look of a stubborn child. "Why not?"

For a moment, she was horribly reminded on little Conan when he got his stubborn moments.

"Shinichi." She looked strictly at him and made a move to stand up. But his hands around her waist held her back.

"Okay, fine. But just so you know, that's **not** fair at all!" he pouted openly at her but refused to let go of her either.

Ran smiled at him and turned to look at his face. "Maybe it'd be the best if I went home."

"No!" he pressed her tightly to him and plunged his face in her hair. "Stay. Either way, I want us to sleep together. I can sleep so much better when I have you in my arms."

She turned in his arms and looked at him with an enchanting expression. "Aww, is that so?"

Without warning, he came forward and gave her a sweet but deep kiss. Pulling away, he grinned at the girl in his arms. "Can't you tell?"

She giggled and leaned forward to hug him tightly.

"Well, who am I to deny you such a sweet proposal?"

"Oh, admit it. You only do it because you like it just as much."

Ran tried to look at him in shock. "Prove it, tantei-kun!" she teased him in a challenging manner.

She sighed and wound her arms around his neck as she was rewarded with another, passionate kiss that stole her breath. He grinned, sure of his win, after parting again.

"Well?"

"I hate it when you're always right."

"You better get used to it while you can."

They smiled at each other but dove in for another kiss. She squeaked a little inside his mouth when she was lifted up by him. Shinichi grinned while he carried her up the stairs and into the bedroom. He kept their eyes locked as he sat her down on his bed and started undressing her slowly. Ran helped him the best she could, sharing his quick smirks while feeling her heart pound strongly in her chest. She lifted her hands to assist him as he pulled her shirt over her head.

She let her arms fall back on the bed and Shinichi kneeled above her. He leaned down to kiss her neck sensually, forcing her to moan out softly and bring her hands up to lay them on his chest. His arms around her back held the girl close to him so that she couldn't wriggle out of his grasp, even if she had wanted to. Which she didn't.

One hand sneaked down to open the zipper of her skirt while his lips were slowly tracing the curve of her neck up and down. It was clear that his touch was not meant to be arousing but to be enjoyed. He gently nudged her to lay down on the bed where she raised her hips for him to pull down her skirt.

He folded her clothes on a chair and walked over to his closet where he started rummaging around a part of it which only held her clothes.

"Which nightgown do you want to wear tonight? We've got here the baby-blue one with the snowflakes, the pink silky one with the white stripes, the one with the cherries, the yellow one with the cats, the black one with the wolves, the white one with the colorful butterflies, one with a 'Hello Kitty' that looks more like a large shirt than anything else…mhm…the opportunity of wearing some shirt and boxers of mine or simply of wearing nothing at all which is my personal favorite. Tough decision, really. Go ahead and chose one!" he grinned at her obliquely

Ran laughed at this and shook her head at the same time. "You are one naughty boy." Shinichi joined in the laughing. "Why don't you pick one for me?"

Shinichi smiled brightly like a child who was allowed to lick the spoon of the cake-paste. He turned to look again inside his closet then turned and made a move to go back to the bed without even a shirt for her to wear. But halfway he stopped and sighed. Turning, he walked back to the closet and pulled out the baby-blue gown before returning to her. He sat on the bed next to the girl who was smiling at him warmly.

Shinichi blushed slightly and looked up at the ceiling, knowing he was found out. "Don't look at me like that! I only don't want you to catch a cold, that's all. Otherwise, I'd have stick to my favorite, you know it."

Ran felt a strong tug of affection go through her body and she kneeled to hug Shinichi closely. She thought her man was adorable but for some reason didn't feel like talking. It would spoil the moment; that's why she didn't say anything but held him tighter.

Shinichi held her in return and stroked her back. But he was a man, and how could a man possibly ignore the feeling of the barely clothed chest of your beloved being pressed against you?

"Uhm, Ran, dear, if you really don't want to wake Hattori up you'd better stop this…"

Ran had to giggle as she understood what he was playing at and pulled away. He could see the goose-bumps rise on her arms and knew he had to get her into some clothes quickly. Not only for him not to fall all over her and do things that would have Heiji definitely wake up but also because he didn't want her to get ill.

He tugged at the clasp of her bra experimentally. "You don't want to sleep in this, do you?"

She shook her head. "You know I get marks if I do."

"What a pity…" he murmured as he already moved behind her to remove the nasty garment. _'Ok, not nasty. This red satin-fabric is super sexy and driving me crazy and all I want is to…no, Kudo, shut up, don't go there. Don't think about it, man. Just don't think about it and stop torturing yourself. Think of something else. Lalalala…' _

Ran grinned secretly as he tossed her bra somewhere. She almost expected him to get all clingy and gropey now that she was half-naked in front of him and had to admit that she was almost a little disappointed when he did not. He reached for the clothing and laid it on his lap.

_'This is easy!'_ He told himself all over again before gave up, sighing. _'Who am I kidding? I have to use all of my might not to…'_

Leaning forward, his breath left an aching path where it was playing across her ear and neck as he whispered to her. "Arms up."

She obeyed and felt her whole body shudder as his hands followed a slow and sensual path from her waist, over her ribs up to her fingers that were high in the air but swaying slightly and then back down. Ran opened her lips in a pant and drew a hard breath in. All of a sudden, she could feel his hands all over her body, teasing her skin with the burning trail of desire that he had left her skin yearning for more.

But Shinichi was a man of iron discipline. At least, when he wanted to. Or had to… Before his body had a chance to betray him, he took the soft cotton night-gown and opened it, then put it over her arms and head. He made her sit up on her knees before he stroked it down her body, smoothing it over her thighs. Done, his arms wound around her waist and pulled her back against his chest.

"Thank you. I like it when you take care of me." She stated quietly as she rubbed her nose against his cheek, and then kissed it.

"My pleasure." He murmured against her hair, kissing the top of her head.

"But what about you?" Ran turned her body a little and was now facing him. "I think I should help you, too. You know, return the favour and all that." She trailed off as her fingers were already halfway through with his shirt.

Shinichi smiled and leaned back to let her have her fun. She had already pulled the shirt down his arms and thrown it on a chair before her curious fingers returned and wandered up and down his bare chest and firm stomach. She grinned, liking this task a whole lot before pushing him to lie on the bed.

She made quick work of his pants and he helped her removing them. Ran leaned back on her legs and admired the handsome picture he presented, unconsciously reaching out to touch him again.

"What a waste…" she sighed out, meaning her words but not taking her gaze away. "Too bad we can't…"

Shinichi grinned, knowing how she was feeling. "I know…"

"Let's get you dressed before we really start having… ideas."

"We'd better…" He agreed but neither moved. Her soft hands were still on his warm skin and they didn't seem to like the idea of moving away either.

He sat up slowly and reached under his pillow to fish for his night-wear which consisted of a simple, white, sleeveless shirt and dark-blue checked boxers. She really liked his choice of sleepwear and watched him with fascination as he dressed.

Knowing he'd get bad, BAD ideas if this continued for too long, he quickly slipped under the cover, pulling it back and up for her to slip inside as well while mentally trying to think of total non-arousing and unsexy things.

_'Corpses, cases, soccer, Heiji in underwear, Kogoro in a bikini…yuck, that was it. Now I'm feeling sick. I hope this doesn't give me nightmares. Waah, gross image!!'_

Ran needn't to be told twice and in a blink she was laying next to him under the warm covers. He was immediately behind her as he spooned her from behind, his arms coming around her waist and holding her closely to his chest. Both sighed out in contentment and bliss.

"Good night." She whispered to him, turning her head to kiss his cheek.

"Sweet dreams." He bend and kissed her temple before settling back down against her comfortably, their hands clasped at her front and pressed close to her body.

It had been a very long, somewhat exhausting day, especially for Shinichi. But with all the work that Ran had had to accomplish, it was no wonder she was feeling just as sleepy. That's why pretty soon, the two fell asleep in the comforting cocoon of tranquillity, peace and love that was enveloping them like a silk blanket.


	6. For women only

_Sorry it took so long but you'll see that the waiting was worth it. Read this and ENJOY! I know I did. You can't imagine how much pure F-U-N I had writing this, it's hilarious, my absolute favorite chapter EVER! I wonder if you can guess why, hehehehehehe. Love, Jojo._

* * *

**Chapter twenty – For women only **

In a high school of Tokyo, on a nice Tuesday morning.

A really determined Nakamori Aoko entered the classroom. She had slept really lousily and finally had come to a decision. Today, nothing mattered. She was so sick of running away from the problem. Knowing that only determination will solve things between her and the cause of her sleepless nights, she walked straight up to him.

"We need to talk." Aoko said with a force that made Kaito flinch momentarily. But he gathered his wits pretty fast.

"I wouldn't know about what." He replied coldly. His coolness enraged her only more.

"You know as well as I do that we have to talk. I can't stand this situation anymore."

Kaito only looked at her, this deep, thorough gaze that had hear heart beat so strongly in her chest that it was already painful. Her determination was shaking but she refused to give in to him.

"Let's go on a date today."

_'A non-scholastic place would be best. Neutral ground. I really need this solved or I'll go mad.' _

"What?" He stared at her, completely confused, as if he was not sure if he had heard her right. Aoko's temper and impatience quickly won over her resolution, now standing there in exchange for her insecurity.

"A date. What's so difficult about that?" She almost spat, her arms crossed at her front.

"I don't want to go on a date with you!" he reacted with anger in return.

"What??" She half-screamed. Remembering to take a deep breath, she could calm her voice down enough for her to speak through grinding teeth.

"What did you just say?"

"I won't go on any date with you!"

"Why won't you? It's not like you have anything better to do!"

"How would you know?"

"'Cause I do."

"Even cleaning my shoes is better than going out with **you**."

"What did you just say?"

"Does stupidity go along with deafness?"

"Kaitooooo!!" Aoko growled, her fist balled and she turned away from the twitching young man now on the ground.

Keiko smiled at the scene that was not new to her and walked after Aoko. As she heard her friend approach, Aoko quickly took a very deep breath and gathered herself; the last thing that she wanted was for her to see her cry.

_'Why is he making this so difficult? Why isn't he cooperating at least a little? Doesn't he want to solve things between us? Doesn't he care at all about me?'_

"He is such a dope." Keiko started, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"He really is…"

"You're going out with me tonight."

"What?" Aoko looked up at her grinning friend. It was one of the grins you better run and hide from. A grin that promised an evil after-thought. And a grin that showed clearly that you had no chance of escaping.

---

One p.m. in the Police Headquarter.

"Here we go again after a successful investigation, I hope." Megure started the meeting. Everybody was telling about their progress, Heiji and Shinichi not as much as they could, though.

"Where is Mori-kun?" Takagi asked at some point, looking around.

Everybody looked around but Kogoro was not in the room. Megure raised an eyebrow. "Well, he excused himself for today. Let's go on."

"Oh? Did he find something new? He said he had a hot trail."

"No." Megure answered Hakuba, not bothering to look up.

"But-"

"Honestly. Let's go on…The situation changed, for we found a dead body clad in the clothes of Kaito Kid."

"WHAT?" Everybody screamed in unison, Nakamori the loudest.

"Yes. It's a fact that our Kid was from France and was in his late forties, that's all we know. We didn't find out his name, yet, but we are working on it. This is the address where we found him and this picture of the culprit."

"That's not Kid!" Nakamori screamed immediately.

"Impossible. Kid is a lot younger." Hakuba announced and earned himself a glare from the old Nakamori.

"What about the treasure?" Heizo inquired.

"We couldn't retrieve one little gem, yet." Megure had to admit shamefully.

"Could I see the picture again?" Shinichi asked from his right side. Taking a look at it, he looked at Heiji and shook his head, signalling him that this was not their man. Heiji nodded back, having expected something like this.

Only, Shinichi seemed to have a déjà-vu. He was sure that he had seen this person somewhere before and his detective intuition never failed him. But he couldn't quite remember where exactly that had been.

"Also, we've been able to catch two individuals trying to ship another large container filled with Disney movies. There's no need for me to mention that those movies are illegal; not one was an original. Another was filled with flour."

"Flour?" Everybody was looking at Megure who only shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't ask me, no idea why. Their destinations had been Italy and Spain. I'm telling you, if we don't manage to capture this smuggling-ring, we'll soon have the biggest problems."

With an almost defeated voice, Megure sent them all away to go on working on this case.

---

Shinichi and Heiji walked out of the police headquarters, both with their hands in their pockets in their usual 'thinking' manner.

"What are we going to do now?" Heiji sighed.

"I don't know…" Shinichi answered absentmindedly, looking behind him for the second time since they have left the building.

"This whole affair doesn't make any sense. I thought Kid…you know. Where do we start?"

"I bet we'll know soon enough, won't we?" Shinichi grinned at a police-man who had just exited the police-station as well.

Said officer was only grinning and walking towards them slowly, hands in his jacket-pockets.

"Yeah. We're going out for a second breakfast." He grinned.

"Sounds good to me." Shinichi grinned back.

They started walking, only a few feet further down the street realizing that Heiji wasn't following.

"Yo, Hattori, what's wrong?"

"I can't believe you. We are in the middle of investigations and all you think about is a second breakfast?" The dark skinned boy from Osaka gaped at Shinichi. "I never knew you were this greedy. And self-centered. That's even worse than me!"

Shinichi simply grinned at Heiji. "I didn't intend to eat anything."

Heiji raised an eyebrow at his friend, now completely puzzled. "But then why…?"

"Haven't you figured it out yet?" Shinichi nodded at the officer who was still standing a few feet away and had his hands in his pockets.

Suddenly, as realization dawned, Heiji's eyes grew big. "You mean he…he is…??"

Shinichi nodded and turned to walk again along the path down the street. Taking a moment to comprehend, Heiji quickly followed, looked thoroughly at the man walking right in front of him.

He hadn't had a lot of opportunities of seeing Kaito Kid in action. This was the first time that he could look at one of his infamous camouflages and he had to admit that he was deeply impressed. It was really amazing.

_'He even has a different voice than the one from yesterday!'_ The tantei observed impressed. _'I wonder how that works. Probably a microphone inside the mask like I used one that time on the ghost ship. He's pretty good.'_

Heiji kept wondering about the man who was walking in front of him for the rest of the walk to said restaurant. To him it wasn't even clear this was actually allowed to call itself a restaurant. It was not modern at all but old and dusty. A place where students would meet after school, totally unobtrusive. No police officer would look in here for any serious criminal.

"Kaito" lead the friends to a table in one corner and beckoned for them to sit down.

"Will you excuse me? I guess I'll better change into something more… convenient."

The "officer" saluted and turned around, then started walking towards the men-washrooms.

"Oi, Kudo." Heiji leaned in to whisper in his ear, not feeling at all confident about this situation and rather like it could all explode any minute. "How does he change his voice? Is it the same microphone trick as we used?"

Grinning, Shinichi shook his head. Not only to answer Heiji's question in the negative but also because out of a thousand questions Hattori could possibly have asked him at this moment, he picked this one. Detectives really are odd sometimes.

"What? No microphone? What trick does he use then?"

Heiji was puzzled and Shinichi was obviously enjoying this way too much for he was still grinning and shaking his head. "No tricks."

"What?? How is that possible? It's impossible, stop fooling me." The poor tantei of the West was now hopelessly confused. It was clearly visible that in his mind he was thinking about all possible methods for this trick and as he came up with none, the expression on his face made his opposite chuckle in amusement.

Kaito returned only two minutes later, presenting himself in civilian clothes which consisted of a cap, a normal shirt and jeans.

"Kuroba Kaito, magician, nice to meet you." He was holding his hand out to Heiji.

The latter was torn between strangling the guy and simply giving him his hand but for some reason the decision was quite hard to make. In any case, Heiji quickly gathered himself and slowly shook hands with the young man, hesitantly retorting.

"Hattori Heiji, detective. Pleasure is all mine."

"Kuroba, he wants to know about your voices."

"My voices?" Kaito spoke in a cute girls' voice. "I don't know what's so special about it." This was said in the deepest, male voice that Heiji had ever heard. "Honestly, you are hearing things." The last sentence Kaito spoke in Heiji's voice. Said detective was shocked to hear the thief imitate his own voice with no help from any gadget.

Kaito clearly enjoyed shocking the usually resolute detective and he sat down with a self-sufficient grin on his lips.

"Is everything all right?" Shinichi asked Heiji who only nodded.

"In any case I hope I don't need to mention that this revealing of my identity is combined with unconditional trust." Kaito started slowly, looking thoroughly at Heiji.

And Heiji nodded again. "I'll keep shut."

"Good. Thanks."

"I thought you were so much older! Hasn't Nakamori-keibu been chasing after Kid since his mid-twenties?"

"My father used to be Kid until he was killed. You've certainly heard that two years ago Kid reappeared after everybody believed him dead." Heiji nodded. "That was the point I took over the monocle and the cape".

Heiji nodded again. Somehow he seemed to be doing that a lot. This whole affair was now making more sense than before. His mind was quickly working on. "Is that the reason you want the diamond? To avenge your father?"

Kid nodded, a sparkling glimmer in his eyes that showed how much lay behind it. Heiji nodded for the last time as if signaling that he had no further questions. Thus, Shinichi took over.

"I assume you have heard what we were talking about in the police-station?"

"Yes, indeed."

"Then tell us, what do you know about that man?"

"First of all, I am surprised you didn't recognize him. Don't you detectives have legendary memory or something?"

"I've met him before?"

"You both have." Kaito nodded in Heiji's direction. "Although I am not sure Hattori took notice of him."

"Now that you mention it, all this time I had a slight feeling of déjà-vu after I saw his picture." Shinichi tugged his chin in a thinking gesture.

"It was this weekend, in that mountain Inn, remember? The drunken Frenchman who tripped over you on the dance floor?"

Shinichi's eyes widened as it struck him. "Of course!" His gaze turned curious. "What were you doing there, anyway? You probably were observing him that day, right?"

"Exactly."

"Excuse me? Could you please enlighten me? 'Coz I am sitting in the dark here." Heiji interjected.

"Last week, in the mountains, the day we went dancing. I saw him on the dance floor but I wasn't sure it was Kuroba so I let it slide. Then a Frenchman tripped over me and today that man is dead. He was murdered, right?"

Shinichi looked at Kaito as he said the last part. The latter only nodded.

"And this guy was the Kid-alike?" Heiji asked in the round.

Kaito and Shinichi shook their head in unison.

"Then who was he?"

"I have no idea." Shinichi looked at Kaito. "Please enlighten us."

"Odevie Jean, 49 years old, wanna-be criminal and extremely unlucky."

"How so?"

"Well, he's been a really pathetic little thief and smuggled a few things to pay his bills. Nothing grave; alcohol, cigarettes. Until, last week, when he came across the access code for the security system in the museum; don't ask me where he got them from. Some friends of his, I think. That's why I observed him in the mountains. But he didn't have the codes with him. I think he made a good deal up there and sold them.

Originally, I planned to find him on Monday and take the codes but he was nowhere to be found. A really strange thing, but I decided that I could do it even without the codes so I didn't bother looking for him and gave up."

"What do you assume happened?"

"I know this sort of wanna-be criminal. He probably wanted too much money and after they had the treasure they didn't need him anymore. They gave him the Kaito costume in order to fool the police. Pretty simple, actually."

Shinichi and Heiji were nodding.

"That makes sense." Shinichi said.

"Are you sure he's coming here?" Heiji looked around for any new person.

"Yes."

As if on cue, the door swung open and a young man with a cap entered. He seemed familiar with the place since he immediately walked over to a small table at the back of the restaurant.

Shinichi immediately recognized the round face and pointy nose. "That's him." He whispered to the other guys who turned slowly towards the suspect.

"Right."

"Exactly."

"He saw us!" Kaito whispered fiercely while he was already standing up.

"What?" Both turned to look at the guy who was now fleeing out the door.

"Shit." All three sprung up and hurried to follow him.

"Hey, the check!" The sales-man grabbed Heiji on the arm and held him back. Said young man looked at him puzzled, and then back at his friends for help.

"We're going on ahead!" Shinichi screamed in his direction as he and Kaito ran after the suspect.

Heiji's face darkened as he grumpily reached in his pocket and hastily took his money out. _'Friends, my ass. Great friends they are.'_

---

"Hi mom." Ran entered the office of Kisaki Eri and walked to the desk the woman was still sitting at.

"Hi honey." Eri kissed her daughter on the cheek.

"I brought the new catalogue with the wedding dresses with me. I've risked a peek; they are absolutely gorgeous."

"Really?? We'll look at them in a minute, let me quickly finish this." Eri once again turned to the screen of her computer.

"How is Shinichi-kun doing?"

"He's fine." Ran, from her spot on the chair at the other end of the desk answered her mother, her nose still in the catalogue. "Pretty busy with this Kid case."

"Thought as much. What about you? Everything's all right?" She asked on nonchalantly.

"Yep," Ran replied.

"And your father?" Eri said and tried her hardest to sound even more nonchalantly, hiding deeper behind her screen, her voice almost a little lower than before.

Ran grinned to herself, knowing she'd meant to ask this the whole time. "Yeah, he's as good as he can be if you got beaten up by three Spanish guys and are lying in the hospital with a twisted leg and several bruises and a concussion."

Eri stopped her typing and rolled her chair to the side so that she could look at her daughter easier. "Tell me again. How exactly did this happen?" An undertone of unbelief and a touch of fake sarcasm were swinging in her voice.

"This Kid case. Dad thought he had a really hot lead in the Spanish ward since the diamond's name is Spanish. So he went there and started a conversation with the wrong man who called his friends and that's the end of story. No Kid, but a couple of injuries."

Eri listened to her daughter in silence, thinking about something.

"How long do you think…"

"Three days at the most."

"Oh." Eri fell silent again and Ran waited with a secret grin for the next questions. "He must be really restless at not being able to work at the case."

"Oh yes, he is. Always calling Megure-keibu and asking him about any progress."

Eri waited another minute before she asked with rosy cheeks, "Do you think he…"

"Yes, he loves visitors. With this case, nobody ever has time to go except me. And Shinichi when I'll force him later but that's a different story." Ran grinned to herself.

A minute passed until Eri moved back to hide behind her screen. "Oh well, then I might drop by after work today to see what that idiot has gotten himself into this time."

"Yeah, you should." Ran hid her grin in the catalogue. Ever since her parents found out about the engagement, they had tried to be a little more polite with each other, especially Kogoro. He may have noticed that soon Ran wouldn't live with him anymore. Or maybe it was just about time for them to get back together. Ran didn't know and she didn't care. She had never lost her hope and if marrying Shinichi would bring her parents closer, than she'd do it with even more pleasure as she already did, and that was a difficult task.

"Is he still mad that I knew about the wedding before he did?"

"A little."

Eri chuckled. Too clearly she could remember Kogoro calling her early in the morning, completely stressed out, asking her before she could mutter a proper 'good morning', if she had any idea what her daughter was doing in her free time. He was already screaming like mad and his rage only increased as she told him with quiet voice that she already knew about it.

"Is Shinichi-kun just as excited about the wedding?" Eri tried to change the subject.

"I think so. He's being really sweet about it."

"Ran, honey. Are you really sure about this? Don't look at me like this, I just don't want you to make the same mistake as I did. You know how childhood friends are tricky and you shouldn't fall for the first guy that uses sweet talk on you."

"Mom…" Ran looked at her mother in a certain way.

"All right, all right. I know, you are a big woman and you can choose for yourself. It was just my duty as mother to ask you, that's all."

"Mommy…I know that Shinichi will make me happy. He is a good man."

"He is. And I know he will at least try his best which is why I didn't let him get killed, yet, and why I stopped your father from doing it himself. You better appreciate it."

Ran laughed. "I do, I do."

Eri waited for another moment, chuckling with her daughter. As the mood calmed down, she asked her daughter the last question to this topic.

"You really love him, don't you?"

Ran blushed and slowly nodded her head. "Yes, I do."

"That's great. The best conditions for a good marriage. Especially since he feels the same."

"He does but…how do you know? Mom?" Eri had looked back at her screen and Ran stood up from her chair. "MOM! You didn't interrogate the poor boy, did you??"

"No, what are you thinking of your mother? Of course I didn't!" Eri defended herself, and Ran sighed out in relief. "Your father did."

"WHAT?"

"Don't scream, they simply had a talk from son-in-law-father-in law. Nothing to get worked up about. And Shinichi-kun is still alive, right? So he must have said _something_ right."

Ran sat down on her chair with force and crossed her arms in front of her.

"I'm going to have to have a long talk with my father."

Eri laughed at that, being vividly reminded of the time Kogoro had asked her father for her hand. A really funny memory and today even Kogoro could laugh about it. Oh yes, the good old times.

---

On her way back home Ran was deep in thought, replaying the meeting with her mother when she suddenly saw a guy on the other side of the street who was running towards her only to turn right and disappear in a dark alley.

While she was still wondering about this ominous young man and about what he was running from she heard steps that were approaching quickly. Three young men were obviously running after him and Ran's eyes widened as she clearly recognized one of them, then another.

"He turned down this alley!" The dark-skinned one said.

"After him." One of the others, who actually looked a little like relatives, if not brothers, said.

They turned right as well, following the traces of the suspect. Ran was only blinking in puzzlement. What in the world would Shinichi, Heiji and she assumed that the other man was Kaito Kid in civilian clothes, do in this part of the town?

Her curiosity getting the better of her, she quickly walked to the other side of the street and turned to the alley, carefully sticking her head around the corner and looking inside. But the street was empty. Slowly, she walked inside, looking cautiously around, mentally preparing for anything. And then she saw it. The only way to escape the dead-end. A lonely, old door.

_'They must have gone this way.'_ She thought and looked up at the building, then walked to the street again to look at it properly.

Ever so slowly, a smile, and then an evil grin spread on her lips. Deciding this was to be fun, real fun, Ran walked to the front door of the building, paid and entered like normal people would. To be more precise, like normal women would do, for this was clearly no place a guy would voluntarily go inside.

Stepping inside completely, Ran was immediately awash with loud cheering and even louder music. A song she had often heard in the radio.

_There's no escape from love  
Once a gentle breeze  
Weaves its spell upon your heart  
No matter what you think  
It won't be too long  
Till your in my arms  
Underneath the starlight - starlight  
We'll be lost in the rhythm - so right  
Feel it steal your heart tonight _

You can try to resist  
Try to hide from my kiss  
But you know  
But you know that you can't fight the moonlight  
Deep in the dark  
You'll surrender your heart  
But you know  
But you know that you can't fight the moonlight  
No you can't fight it  
No matter what you do 

_It's gonna get to your heart_

"Yeah girls, this was "Can't fight the moonlight" by the infamous Leann Rimes, the amazing godmother of our place. Who could ever forget her brilliant songs in the movie that was named after our bar?." A young man in nothing but briefs and an apron and a muscular upper body that had _some_ girls drooling, shouted as he walked up and down the huge counter. Loud cheering was to be heard from all sides and directions. Antonio, as he was called, obviously a Latino, came to a halt, reached up to hold on a metal bar and smiled a toothy grin at the female audience before dancing and going on.

"A great welcome to the ones who just came in, it's been the perfect timing. Yes, the night is still young in the first Coyote Ugly Bar for Women in all of Japan and tonight we have something reeeeeeally delicious for you all. Our monthly "Wet-Shirt-Competition". How many times were men allowed to enjoy wet shirts on girls? This time, it's your show, ladies!!" The cheering got extremely loud and the man on the counter adjusted to the screams, going with them.

"I know, I know, it's about time. A great variety of young, exotic men are already waiting behind our curtain to put on their show on this counter that will be their catwalk and then have to remove their annoying, wet shirts so you can see what's underneath while you have to cheer the loudest for the best performance. Ten men, to be precise. In the end, we will have counted the decibel of your cheers to name our winner. I have seen the guys. They are hot!" Loud cheering again erupted from the mass. "They are sexy!" Impossible loud cheering again. "They are burning to come out here and win your affection along with the big prize. Drinks for free all night long! In only a few seconds we'll be ready to start."

The women cheered loudly, clapping their hands and whistling. The atmosphere was amazing, like nothing Ran had ever seen. She wondered if she indeed was to see her fiancé dancing on the counter. This was a show she'd enjoy. Definitely. Oh yeah.

She stood and waited patiently for the show to begin, a naughty grin on her lips the whole time. In the other side of the room, with a dozen women, young and old, attractive and not so attractive separating them, stood two girls about Ran's age. One was cheering loudly along with the others while her friend was looking kind of uncomfortably at her.

"Keiko, I don't know about this…"

"Aoko-chan, believe me, you'll enjoy it."

"I don't think so. This is not my type of entertainment and…"

"Don't tell me you are still sulking because Kuroba-kun dumped you."

"Dumped me? He never…Why would I be sulking over that miserable excuse of a guy??" she suddenly screamed at Keiko. The latter grinned, knowing she had hit her nerve.

"Fine, then because he didn't want to go out with you tonight."

"As if I care one bit about that!!"

"So, will you enjoy this evening and not think about that guy for once?"

"I never think about him."Aoko lied miserably, crossing her arms at her front. "That stupid, idiotic, arrogant jerk that always-"

Keiko grinned at her. "Aoko-chan, no thinking about him, remember?"

She looked at her stupefied and blushed. "Right…" came her embarrassed murmur.

Aoko sighed inwardly. How could she enjoy this when she really had to think about Kaito all the time? She was so afraid that they had profoundly messed up their whole friendship because of this one, stupid, meaningless kiss… She blushed.

_'Who am I kidding? It still is the most amazing thing I have ever experienced…if only he thought about it the same way…Well, can't have everything.' _

"Are you feeling all right? You look so sad all of a sudden…" Her concerned friend asked her.

"No, I am fine." Aoko quickly answered, putting a smile on. "We'll enjoy this."

"Oh yes, we definitely will. Look, it's starting." They started cheering along with the others.

"Yeah ladies, as you have seen we are ready to go. I will introduce our young men in a few seconds. Prepare to be stunned by those hot bodies. Maestro, music!! Yes, thanks.

"Ladies and ladies, please welcoooooomeeeee candidate number one. This is Steve. This young sexy example arrived only yesterday and comes from the far away Schottland." Loud cheering errupted again as a young man around twenty-fife stepped out from behind the curtain, dressed in a shirt and a chequered traditional kilt. "Wouldn't you all like to know what's underneath that kilt? Vote for Steve and he might grant us a glimpse."

Said young man was grinning broadly as he walked proudly up and down the counter, the cheering only getting louder as from somewhere a bucket filled with water was splashed on him and even more as he slowly pulled his shirt off.

"Wow, that was awesome. The next candidate comes from Sappuro. He wants to be called Okaru and is a fireman. To work with hot things is his job. Too bad there's nothing he can do about his own, hot body. But we can try!" There was again cheering as water was splashed on the dancing young man who was shaking his behind in big circles before he ripped his shirt off. The women went crazy.

"Now, candidate number three…"

The same procedure took place another four times, the women amusing themselves pricelessly, until it was the turn of a young man who seemed to be rather tense and surprised about this whole thing. He was feeling uncomfortable the way he was looking around quickly, it was clear to everybody who looked at his face, means to the minority who wasn't too busy staring at his body. Thus, this little detail remained unobserved.

"This exotic piece of meat just came in. He's obviously more than fresh. Greet our…oi buddy, what was your name again?" Antonio leaned forward to listen to what the new meat was telling him. "Right. He's called: "The Thief." Oh and I can see why. He's gonna steal your hearts. Come on baby, move it."

"The Thief" immediately adapted to the situation and started an erotic dance that had the girls and women in there screaming their heads off, especially when he was splashed all over with water and started taking his shirt off slowly.

A minute later, Antonio clapped his hands and went on with the announcing, wiping sweat off his forehead.

"Well, THAT was hot. Let's see what these three delicious masterpieces, the last ones for today, have to offer." Three handsome, young men were pushed on the counter where they now stood and looked around puzzled.

"They are coming directly from our beautiful city of Tokyo!"

"Osaka!!" One of them screamed annoyed at him but the announcer didn't react. He completely ignored him and went back to talk with the audience that was slowly but steadily going mad.

"They came to us at the very last minute and couldn't wait to participate. In fact, they came so shortly before this competition started, I don't even know their names. Hey guys, tell us your names."

"What?" One of them shouted at him.

"The hell we will!" Another yelled.

"Oh, they are **shy**. Aren't they simply adorable?" The women cheered loudly, Ran grinned nastily. "Fine, then I will give you names. You look to me like 'The Three Musketeers', so how about we call you like that? What do you think, ladies?"

"Yayyy!" The "ladies" screamed in absolute agreement.

"Aawww, I can tell you like these three a whoooole lot. Maybe you only want to know how good they are with their…swords." Louder cheering, Ran had to brush her tears away for she was laughing too hard.

"Then let's see what you think of THAT!" Two of his assistants, similar clothed, appeared out of nowhere and splashed the three with four buckets of cold, icy water.

The three 'Musketeers' screamed loudly in protest, looking around scandaled, obviously not believing what was happening and thinking about whether or not to rip this Latino guy in pieces. And as he indicated at them to put off their shirts and start dancing, Shinichi had to grab Heiji by the arms for him not to jump on Antonio and beat him to a bloody pulp.

"Move your sexy bodies, guys." Antonio told them, his words underlined by the cheering in the background.

Shinichi had to renew his grip on Heiji. "Calm down, Hattori, just start moving."

_'This is too good to be true." _One of the women thought. _"Kazuha would never forgive me if I didn't take pictures, I know it.'_ Ran was grinning so broadly that her cheeks were already hurting, just like her stomach that she was clutching because it hurt as well from laughing too much. She had to try really hard to keep her camera stable and not shake too much for the pictures to come out clearly.

In her mind she could already imagine Kazuha's face upon seeing said pictures and screaming at Heiji about what exactly he had been doing in Tokyo, for this certainly didn't look like investigation. But, all in all, Kazuha probably wouldn't be too angry at him. She'd probably enjoy them just as much as Ran was enjoying them.

Ran's camera ran hot as she tried hard to not miss a single scene or stiff dance move that the guys tried to show as they stepped in motion.

On stage, all three young men tried their best to adapt to this new situation themselves, swinging their hips and arms around in big circles.

"Oi, Kudo, what the hell are we going to do now?" Heiji whispered fiercely to Shinichi who was concentrating and trying hard to dance erotically and not stamp in any beer-glasses.

"It can't get any worse." Kaito interrupted.

"That's right. We'll just play along and move inconspicuously closer to our target." Shinichi whispered to them.

Heiji nodded and shook his hips back and forth (Ran almost choked on her own laughter, her camera working in record time) trying his best to look sexy. His hands moved from behind his head and played with his wet shirt. They swirled around in big circles, his face serious in concentration; an expression that the women misunderstood for erotic.

Shinichi had to suppress a smug grin upon seeing his friend's moves but went on to do the same, his hands rubbing over his wet, still clothed, chest. He turned over and displayed his behind to the tossing mass, shaking it like an expert. Ran's eyes almost fell out of their sockets and she felt her mouth open involuntarily. For a moment she even forgot to press the little button on her camera but gathered herself really quickly. She gulped and smirked.

_'How does he know what to do so well?' _

Shinichi turned to Kaito who had stopped moving. "Did you hear what I just said? We will dance in direction of…Kuroba?"

But Kaito wasn't hearing him. In fact, he was hearing nobody and nothing at this moment. Shinichi followed his gaze and looked at the cheering women at their front and couldn't make out what Kaito was looking at this horrified.

In fact, our young thief couldn't think of anything at the moment except one thing. _'Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, please not.'_

But he soon had to face the fact that he wasn't that lucky. It was indeed the shocked Aoko who he was facing. He could swear he heard his heart stop beating as his motions stopped altogether. All he could do was stare at her and all she could so was stare back with open mouth while around them the sexual tension and the screaming reached their peak.

All of a sudden, the whole thing escalated. Women climbed on the counter grabbing at whatever they could reach, others screamed hysterically, underwear was flying around the place, Antonio was carried off to an unknown destination by two women you wouldn't want to encounter at night in a dark alley if you were alone. The security guys were played with as easily as the dancers on the counter, no matter how hard they struggled against the death-grip of the women who were tugging at them and their already hardly-covering-anything clothes.

Kaito, who was still looking at Aoko, didn't pay attention for a moment until it was too late. A young woman had jumped on the counter in order to jump on Kaito. As she flung herself in his arms, she tripped causing him to trip with her. But while landed softly in top of poor Kaito, he didn't have that much luck. He tried to break his fall with his hand but twisted it in the process as he slipped on a glass. He fell and hit the counter with his head which immediately knocked him unconscious.

Shinichi screamed his name and tried to lunge forward to save Kaito from the woman who was hugging his body tightly but he could not get away because two of the hysterical furies were clutching his legs while another was tearing one sleeve off of his shirt.

"Get off! Let me go! I'm an engaged man!" Shinichi screamed, trying to free himself from all the hands that were tearing at his shirt in the hope that that would scare them off. He could hear his clothes tear slowly.

"Me too, me too! AHHH!" Heiji tried while flinching away from a fat old woman who was fumbling with his belt.

It was really not like either of the ladies cared what they were saying at this point. It was more of a turn-on. It was almost as if whoever screamed most was the strongest male, a primal instinct or something like that.

But not only our three were attacked. The other men on the counter tried to save themselves as well and looked like a bunch of frightened chickens in the process, the way they were trying to get away.

As Ran saw Shinichi struggle immensely to save his pants, she decided that this was about enough. How could they possibly try to get what was hers? Touching was too much. Putting her camera away, she wriggled her way through the crazed mass.

The suspect took the opportunity to flee. He boxed his way to the exit, looking behind him a few times. Shinichi saw him first and at the same time jumped because a hand had just touched his behind.

"Wah!" He swatted it away. "Hattori!" He pointed at the guy. "After him!"

Heiji nodded and tore himself away from the women rather aggressively. He jumped down and run the best he could through the mass and after the suspect. Shinichi was relieved that Heiji had gotten free and tried his best to get out of this situation and save Kaito without hurting anybody. But as he looked at his comrade, he saw that one woman was now standing beside him and driving away all the other women with a wooden stick. For a moment he was scared for his friend, having no idea what this woman was going to do to him and struggled stronger against the hands that were tugging on him but then something caught his eye. The woman who was now towering above Kaito was not tugging at him or doing anything indecent. She was looking down at him with concern, checking for any injuries. Shinichi's eyes widened as she carefully touched one of his cheeks with a hand.

And all of a sudden, he felt that this was alright. He didn't know why but he knew that he could trust this woman with Kaito.

As Shinichi looked back in the mass, he suddenly locked eyes with a furious Ran. His heart skipped a beat. What was she doing there? More importantly, how much had she seen??

_'You are a dead man, Kudo.' _He told himself, absolutely convinced.

Almost as if in slow-motion he saw some big butt from some big woman knock Ran over. She bumped against another woman and landed on her knee. She held it tightly as it started bleeding; he could see it clearly since she was wearing a skirt and her face distorted in pain.

The only thing that Shinichi was able to perceive at the moment was the picture of his fiancée laying on the floor, holding her bleeding knee. Something inside him snapped. He lunched forward towards her, getting rid of all the obstacles that were in his way; security-guys or screaming women, he didn't care. All that mattered to him at the moment was that he had to reach her immediately to check on her and how badly she was injured.

Yes, Shinichi was MAD. Really mad. He reached her in record time and looked at her wounds. "Ran, are you all right?" He asked her in concern.

"Yes but my knee hurts."

Without thinking about it, he tore his already-tattered shirt off and wound it around her knee, tying a tiny slipknot to keep it in place. One of his arms was at her back, supporting her.

"Who did this to you?" He almost growled, looking around to scan the place for the villain.

"No idea, it's too crowded…Shinichi?" She softly called his name. He almost hadn't heard it because it was too loud.

"Yes?"

"Can we go home now?" Her innocent, gentle eyes that were pleading at the moment were able to make him do everything for her.

"Of course!" He helped her stand up and she yelped as he lifted her up in his arms tenderly while around them the chaos was still going on fairy undisturbed by them.

"I think I can walk, you don't have to carry-" She protested but he quickly hushed her.

"I'll take you home."

And he exited the bar in a really manly fashion, carrying his future bride along the dark streets and to her house as quickly and gracefully as he could. He needed to look after her wounds, after all.

Arriving at the Mori detective-office, he took a deep breath and started walking up the stairs, struggling a little for there were too many stairs and unused extra-weight.

---

Heiji had taken after the man, running after him for twenty minutes in his tattered shirt in the cold of the night. But at the docks, in the confusing constructions of the buildings and warehouses, he lost him.

He searched around for another half hour, cursing under his breath. He had been hot on his heels; how could something like that happen?

Shivering strongly, he finally gave up and took out his cell phone.

"Kudo? Yeah man, damn I lost him…Here in the docks. No idea. I have already, of course. We better call it a night, I am freezing like mad. You know how they tattered my shirt? Yes I know. Where are you? … I see. All right, I'll go to your place. I know where the key is, yeah. And the towels, as well. No no, stay with Neechan and look after her, no need to come for me. Okay, good night. Bye."

Heiji quickly walked back to the Kudo mansion. He couldn't wait to get a long, hot bath.

---

"Hattori is going home. No wonder, he's freezing his butt off without shirt out there. Jeez, I never thought women could be this scary and completely mad. Although, I've always known they were mad. This might sting."

"Au!" Ran hissed as he dabbed a small tissue with disinfectant to her knee. "Aren't you smart, talking like this. If you hadn't the control right now and if my knee wasn't hurting I'd just might hit it in your face, you know."

"Talking of mad women."

"Shinichi!" Ran tensed and she sat up all the way.

He chuckled, stroking her leg gently. "I was kidding. Hold your horses, dear."

She crossed her arms at her front and sank back to the couch.

"By the way, where is your father?"

Ran blushed. She looked at him strictly and turned her head to the side, arms still crossed.

Shinichi had to grin inwardly. He finished bandaging her knee, and then bent it a few times carefully to see if the bandage was holding. Satisfied with his work, he sat on the couch next to her and poked her arm.

Ran jerked a little in surprise and turned to glare at him. But he was quicker for he had used the changed position of her head to press a kiss to her lips. She looked even more startled as she stared at him, not sure if she should hit him, scream at him or kiss him again.

At his completely childish and innocent expression, she broke down and started laughing. "You are so childish sometimes, nobody would believe me that, I swear."

Shinichi chuckled and hugged her loosely, laying his head on her shoulder comfortably. "You better keep that to yourself or I'll have to consult my lawyer."

"What?" she giggled at him and received a grin.

"Well, where is the old man now?"

Hesitating for a second, she sighed but told him what happened to her father. And, as expected, Shinichi was rolling on the couch, holding his stomach because it had long ago started hurting from all the laughter. Soon, Ran had had enough and hit him over the head, causing him to stop laughing immediately and stare at her, shocked. She only raised her brows at him, expecting a reaction. But he only sat still, crossed his arms and went to sulking.

"You are so mean. And that after I saved your life." Ran smiled at that. "It's not even my fault! It's your Dad's fault and his great ideas. How can he, just like that, assume that a Spanish treasure must be stolen by Spanish people and go there to start a fight? Come on."

"Oh be quiet."

He went on sulking and looked at the other direction. Ran found him adorable and wasted not much time hugging him. "You're my hero. Thank you for saving me."

Shinichi's ego flared at that. He was grinning as he laid an arm around her. "It's my holy duty as your knight in shining armour and future husband. I had to rescue thee, tender maiden."

"You mean you want to show me what you can do with your sword?" Ran teased him and Shinichi blushed.

"But you did a fine job saving me." Ran chuckled.

"Don't you think some reward is in order?" Shinichi asked, raising his eyebrows to go along with his spreading grin.

Suddenly Shinichi's cell phone rang and destroyed the mood. He groaned, excused himself and quickly rolled over to it. A minute later, he returned to her and grinned.

"Where were we?"

---

As Kaito woke up, the first thing he noticed was that it was awfully quiet. The music from earlier and screams of the girls were still ringing in his ears uncomfortably. The second thing was that although he was not at his house, the surroundings did seem familiar to him.

That's how far he got with his thinking, because at this point a girl stepped into his view. She was looking intently at him. He only stared back.

"Aoko?" he asked in disbelief.

Nakamori Aoko knelt down on the couch where he was laying covered by a blanket, and placed an ice-filled cloth on his head but said nothing just yet. Only as the ice touched his head and a wave of hardly bearable relief flooded through his body, Kaito realized how much it had been hurting in the first place. Later, when he looked inside the mirror in her bathroom, he would, through his cursing and swearing, see the nasty swelling on the left side of his forehead, making it look like he had a horn.

He figured that he had had luck, though, that she had looked after him that quickly because otherwise it certainly would have looked worse.

"What happened?" he quietly asked the girl next to him who was still holding the ice to his forehead. Her gaze swayed from her task to his eyes for the first time and as their eyes met, he felt an electric jolt curse through his body.

"You tripped and hit your head against the counter. Keiko helped me to save you from the disgraceful fate of being stamped to death by dozens of hormone-driven furies and to bring you to my house. Luckily, the swelling on your head is not too bad, but I think your left wrist is seriously bruised."

Kaito examined his hand while she went on talking. "I looked after it, cleaned the wound and bandaged it while you were knocked out. But maybe you should go let a doctor examine it, just in case it's something serious."

He looked back into her eyes. "How long was I out?"

"About an hour."

"Damn…" he murmured to himself and reached in his pocket for his cellphone. Aoko then disappeared in the kitchen without another word to let him write the text-message he was writing in private.

_'Sorry, was knocked out. Did you guys catch him?' _

He send the message to Shinichi and almost immediately received an answer.

_'Finally, I have been wondering where you went to. He got away. _

_We call it a night. See you tomorrow.'_

Kaito put his cell phone away and leaned back down, sighing out.

_'The bastard got away. Dammit. I can not believe we had to do this, only because of him. I swear, when I get my hands on him, I will show no mercy.'_

Aoko returned with a cup of tea that she handled him. He murmured a quiet: "Thank you", while inwardly still cursing at their failure.

"You are welcome." Aoko whispered back while picking up the cloth with the ice that had fallen from his head as he had sat up and put it back on his head. "How are you feeling?"

Kaito had to grin. "As if a bunch of hormon-driven furies had stomped over me."

"Just imagine how you'd have felt if we hadn't rescued you in time!"

"Right. Thanks again."

"It was nothing." She responded a little shyly, looking at her hands. Inwardly she was glad because those had been the first, normal words they had spoken with each other since…

* * *

_OMG just thinking about this DANCING SCENE sends me laughing on the floor so hard that my stomach hurts so badly, but I just can't help it! Tell me if you liked it? The next chapter will be so sweet and even more HOT! Including all three couples, you may look forward to it. Thanks for reading (kisses)_


	7. Desire, love and passion

_Sorry it took so long. I promise this story will be updated every week from now on as long as you enjoy it. Sorry to all those amazing people who asked me over and over when this will be updated, I had some personal scores to settle with this story but now I am done and you can have it completely. Love you all and please continue to love my story._

* * *

**Chapter twenty-one **

_**Desire, love and passion**_

* * *

Some time later, after Heiji had taken a bath and robbed Shinichi's fridge, a full and sleepy tantei lay in his bed, reminiscing about the day.

He still couldn't believe what had happened in that bar. All of a sudden, he looked at women with whole different eyes. Heck, they could turn to furies in no time.

_'I am really glad Kazuha was not there. I would probably die from embarrassment.'_ He took a moment to think about this before he corrected his own thoughts. _'Although she'd probably had enjoyed the show way more than I did…' _He sighed long and deep.

_'If she were here I'd at least have company. Somebody to cuddle to… but it's not like I miss her or something…'_ A long, pensive pause followed.

_'Jeez, who am I kidding, of course I miss her. I miss her terribly.'_ Heiji turned to the other side on the bed.

'I wonder what she is doing right now…'

_I'm only happy when I'm with you  
I only feel good when I'm talking to you  
And I'm a mess when you don't call me  
Call me at night  
Where did you go  
Where did you go  
And did you think of me_

At the same time in Osaka, a very awake girl was sitting on her bed, staring at her cell-phone. She sighed for the tenth time the last few minutes and took her phone in her hand, determined to dial the number, her finger ready.

But it did not move. Hesitantly, she put the phone down again.

'I can't call him. What will he think of me? Damn, and I miss him so much…I wonder what he is doing right now. And if he even thinks of me.'

Deciding to just find out, she quickly dialed the number and pressed the green button before she had a chance to talk herself out of it. To her shock, a voice told her that the person she was calling was not available at the present time. She very hastily hung up again.

What she did not know was that Heiji on the other end of the line had just at this moment decided to call her as well, to see how she was.

It only happens rarely, very rarely, but it happens that when two people call each other at the same time, the line is occupied and they can not reach each other even though both want to.

Defeated, Heiji quickly placed his cell phone on the night-stand and hit his head against the pillow. He looked at it for a few minutes and sighed out. Turning, he tried to get some sleep and it was late at nigh when he finally fall asleep, wishing desperately that Kazuha were there to cuddle with him.

In Osaka, Kazuha lay in her own bed, staring in frustration at her cell phone. Her courage had left her and she didn't dare to try again to call him. She laid the phone next to her pillow and stared at it after cuddling deeper in her sheets. Suddenly she felt a strong wave of sadness course through her. She was missing him more and more every time he left her and she could only hope for his well being and his soon return.

_It's hard to breathe and my heart's sinking  
I'm slipping fast and I'm reaching for you  
It's gonna hurt cause I have been there before  
Can't take much more  
Can't take another night without you beside me_

It was already late and as sleep was slowly taking her to dreamland, her last thoughts swirled around Heiji and how she wished he was here to take her in his strong arms and secure her a tight and comfortable sleep like only he could.

*~*~*~*

It was late night. Kazuha was lying in her bed, the room was silent and dark and only the light that came through her window was illuminating it. She couldn't sleep and watched the curtains dance in the night's breeze that was coming inside her room, lying in her bed motionless.

As a shadow appeared on her window, Kazuha was not scared. She wasn't even scared as a dark, tall man entered her room through the open window and soundlessly walked over to her bed. They looked at each other deeply before he sat down on the edge of the bed, taking her hand in his and kissing it affectionate. They stared deeply into one anothers' eyes for some time.

Kazuha felt a smile appear on her lips as this person slid closer towards her on the bed, still holding her hand which he now used to pull her up to a sitting position. As he pulled his right knee up to the bed so he could turn his whole body to her, she noticed that he wasn't wearing shoes.

For some reason she was wearing her usual rubber band to hold her hair up in a pony-tail. His free hand reached up to correct this mistake and his expression made clear that he was not at all bothered by this task but that he liked it. Tossing it away, he stroked her hair for a long moment, playing with it gently as it run through his fingers. A soft smile, that she returned, was playing across his face, giving him a lovable appearance.

As he hugged her to his firm body, she sighed contently at the familiar closeness. The intruder held her close and bent down to kiss her passionately without a word passing between them. She kissed him back with equal passion, feeling the need for more course through her just as it was spurring him on.

One of Heiji's hands slipped under her satin pyjama-top, pressing her hot body even tighter against him while he deepened the kiss even more. To his delight, he realized that she was wearing no bra underneath and this fact was stoking his desire even more.

Their kiss deepened again, Kazuha moaning inside his mouth as he slipped his own tongue inside to draws hers out to play. The kiss grew hotter and Heiji more impatient. As his hands travelled down to the hem of her top, he pulled away from her lips for a moment to pull it over her head before tossing it in a corner, forgetting the garment the moment it left his fingers. Looking at her half-clad form, he grinned at the beautiful picture that she presented. Had he ever mentioned how much he loved her breasts or how perfect they were in his eyes?

Moving his gaze up after a moment to stare into her eyes, he saw her lids were heavy with lust and that she was obviously just as willing to continue this as he was. There's no need to mention how happy this fact made our tantei.

He dove in for another kiss to which she immediately responded, opening her lips to him and letting him sweep her away to another world. Heiji kissed her and pressed her closer to his body until he felt her hand slowly push him backwards. He looked confused at Kazuha and saw the smug grin on her face as she made quick work of his shirt, tossing it after her last garment.

Their lips crushed back together in the familiar, passionate dance and after having enjoyed the feeling of her naked skin on his, Heiji sat up slowly, never breaking their contact, and leaned forward so that he could lay her softly back on the bed and on her back.

While he was kneeling above her, looking down at her gorgeous body, a faint lullaby could be heard in the background. After Heiji removed her pyjama-bottom and she lay there in front of him in all her almost completely naked glory, he started debating with himself where to start his meal.

Deciding it didn't matter, he dove for it and slowly kissed her neck. Kazuha arched against him, tilting her head to the side. Heiji grinned against her skin, his big hands caressing it all over as his kisses seemed to burn her where ever they lingered. It seemed like he wanted to find all the secrets she may have kept hidden from him. Like he longed to caress her all over, to introduce himself to every inch of her body so it would never forget that she was his and his alone.

The thought alone of somebody else touching her was driving him crazy and Heiji sucked on her cleavage a little harder than planned. He smiled as he heard Kazuha moan out and grab his head. With every passing moment and with every caress of his lips and his tongue there gathered something inside of her. Something that was so huge it was almost hurting but at the same time was feeling so divine she wouldn't even dream of stopping him.

Heiji was letting all his affection for her flow in every kiss, every touch he graced her body with and from her reaction he saw that she could feel it. She gently stroked his head as he rubbed with his cheek against her belly. God, it was unbelievable how he loved this woman. Slowly trailing his kisses upwards over her chest, he enjoyed her soft moans, knowing exactly where she was the most sensitive and what she liked the most.

He was fully concentrating on making her feel good while at the same time enjoying himself. She was whispering his name and Heiji smiled. He loved the little sounds that she made when she was lost in pleasure, and he continued with tender caresses and loving attention from his lips to heighten her arousal, meaning to drive her out of her mind.

Long ago he had felt his own arousal come to life, knowing that she was doing this to him, as usual but slowly he felt it become more intense than he could stand. He knew he had to increase the pace a little if he didn't want this wondrous experience between them to be over before it had really started.

It was as if she knew exactly what he was thinking and she gently pushed him back to a sitting position, her hands stroking over his chest. They took their time and Heiji only sat there, fascinated into motionlessness. Smiling at her new power, Kazuha's hands soon moved down to work at his belt, unbuckling it in no time. She looked back up in his eyes, her expression robbing him of his breath for a moment. But he soon came back to life and helped her remove his pants.

She tossed them away carelessly to join their other clothes, then turned to smile at him as his hands were already wandering over her hardly clothed body. She melted against his hands and his lips as they sought out hers for another kiss, her own hands caressing over his revealed skin.

As he pushed with his hands against an especially delicate spot, Kazuha broke the kiss, throwing her head back and gasping. Heiji only grinned against her and lifted his head to kiss her throat again. At first she didn't even notice that he had rolled them both and that she was underneath him again. Giving her another, deep kiss, he smiled as he felt her impatient hands start removing his last piece of clothing.

After aiding her, he brought his hands back up underneath her back to hold her body close against his. Leaning down to kiss her tenderly again, she returned the intimate embrace, gasped once loudly and started responding to the dance of pure love and affection that drove them both out of their minds and to new highs. Hands were roaming over bodies and kisses were revealing secrets that only they knew about each other, striving for completion and perfection over and over again.

_I want to review my kisses  
On every inch of your body  
I want to reveal my secrets  
That only you should know  
I feel all this pain inside of me  
That only your lips can make better  
I wanna review my kisses  
So you won't forget that you are mine_

---

The uncomfortable and awkward silence and coldness that had lay between them the past days returned unpleasantly to Aoko and Kaito. Neither knew what to say, at the same time knowing that something had to be said.

"What were you doing there, anyway?" She asked him, not meaning to tease.

Kaito immediately blushed as he remembered what had happened in that bar and he was awash with pure embarrassment, even more at the fact that Aoko had watched.

"What were YOU doing there?" He spat, trying to get rid of his own feelings of embarrassment, which were unusual for him, and replace it with the usual and well-known fighting.

Aoko was dumbfound and blinking in confusion. Her hands were already shaking and she clutched the hem of her skirt to keep from hitting him. "I asked first."

"Oh? Are we trying to cover our kinky side?"

"Excuse me?" Aoko sprung up, taking a fighting position. "It wasn't me who was dancing on that counter half-naked, driving all the women crazy!" she screamed.

Kaito grinned arrogantly. "What can I do if I look that good?"

"You did not look any good. And you yourself provoked what happened, with all your prancing up and down the counter, half-naked. This is all your fault."

"Oi, Aoko, are you jealous?" He grinned knowingly at her.

"BAKA!" She screamed at him, now completely enraged. "Why would I be jealous over YOU?!?"

"There are plenty of reasons. Just look at you and then look at me, isn't it obvious that…" He stopped himself as he noticed something. Something that he didn't like at all.

To his indescribable horror, Aoko started crying. At first, only a few tears popped out of her eyes and he clearly recognized them as tears of anger. But then, more and more tears started to follow and running down her face until she was sobbing in the earnest, covering her face in her hands and turning away from him.

Kaito started panicking. This was one of the only things in the world that he could not stand. See Aoko cry. He could take a dozen of police men and even more, steal the greatest treasures of the planet, accomplish the most impossible acts with his magic. But when he saw Aoko cry, the ever-witty, undaunted young man turned to a helpless, little child who wanted nothing more than to cry with her. Guilt always played an important role as well, because most of the times that he saw Aoko cry, it was his fault. Like now. She was crying because of him. Again.

Couldn't he do anything right? First, he messes up in the mountains and now this… He was such a hero… His head hung down but he knew he had to do something to help her.

"I am sorry, you don't look that bad," he quickly told her to save the situation, but she only shook her head, not able to stop her tears. He could tell this had not been the part that had upset her this much.

"Aoko?" He approached her with an outstretched hand but didn't dare touching her so it sank back before it could touch her back.

"Aoko…" He tried again, gathering his courage little by little as her sobs wouldn't cease. This time, a shy hand carefully touched her back. Her body immediately tensed but she did not move away.

"Why are you crying?"

She sniffed, cleaning her eyes quickly with the back of her hand. At this moment she decided that she didn't care about anything anymore._ 'Might as well tell him and get it over with. It doesn't matter anyway.'_

"It's just that…Are all our conversations going to be like this from now on? Screaming at each other as the only form of communication? Because I can't stand it," she quietly spoke, still not turning to look at him.

"Aoko…?"

_Don't wanna care more than you do  
Don't wanna be the one who's out in the rain  
Don't wanna get that call where you sound so cold  
So far away, So far away  
Like the distant roll of thunder_

"I'm sorry. It's just… I guess I never thought I'd give my first kiss to somebody who didn't care at all and who hates me afterwards for it." A couple of tears run down her face.

"Who said I didn't care?" He asked her quietly, looking with his flaming head in direction of the ground, almost in shame.

"Oh please." She turned to face Kaito. "You've been avoiding me ever since! You didn't respond to any attempt to talk to you that I've started and you are being even ruder than before. I see you care a lot." Bitter sarcasm burned hotly in her throat and was ringing clearly in her voice. She had looked at him while speaking but after finishing had turned her head away again, not being able to look in his eyes.

"It was not because I didn't care. In the contrary…" He spoke softly, his words almost getting lost in the big room.

"What?" She whispered confused as she looked at him again.

Kaito had decided that he didn't care anymore. If this was hurting Aoko that much, he'd just tell her what he was thinking. Afterwards, he still had time to leave her in peace.

"I could never hate you, Aoko. And I care too much for you to let you force yourself to be nice to me after what I have done."

"W-what you have done?" she asked him with shaky voice and teary eyes, not believing what he had just said.

"Y-you know, the k-k-kiss I forced on you…" He looked ashamed away. "It's like I took that kiss from you by force and you didn't have a say in it."

For a second he wondered why he was being so honest. It was not like him at all to open and show his cards to his opponent or lower his poker-face, let alone bare his own feelings.

_'Must be the freedom of the night again.'_ He thought and waited a second. _'Bad, bad night.'_ He scolded half-heartedly.

"What are you talking about?" She asked and cleaned with the back of her hand over her eyes to restore the clear view. "It was me who kissed you. Wait, you thought…?"

Slowly, she understood. This whole thing had been nothing but a huge problem of communication. A misunderstanding.

"I thought you felt obligated to talk to me even though you didn't really want to and I was mad at myself, not at you. That's probably why I reacted so harshly. I'm sorry and I understand if you don't ever want to talk to me again and…"

To his renewed horror, he saw her start crying again and his insides clutched together painfully, his self-hatred having reached its climax.

"Would you stop crying?" He screamed at her and out of nowhere appeared in his right hand a tissue with a quiet "plop" and a mini-cloud of white smoke. "I can't stand it, you know that." He told her softly, walked the last feet to her and cleaned her tears away.

She watched him and waited till he was finished, struggling with herself to not start crying again, although this tears were not tears of sadness, oh no.

"Ok, I guess I better go and try not to come too close to you again and I really-" That's exactly how far he got before he was knocked over and landed on the ground. Even if he had expected something like this to happen, he would have thought that Aoko hitting him with something would have this result and not Aoko flying forcefully into his arms.

Completely confused, he looked down at her, blushing, and would have almost screamed out again as he saw droplets of clear liquid leave her eyes again. But he caught himself in time because he had noticed her bright smile. How did that fit? Crying and smiling? Had she gone completely mad?

He was still stiff and didn't dare move a single muscle as Aoko refused to get off him; instead she clung to his shirt tightly (actually it must have been one of Nakamori's shirts since his had been torn into a thousand pieces at the bar). Kaito was really confused, wondering , what the heck was going on here? Did he miss something?

"Oh Kaito." Aoko sniffed against him and rubbed her cheek against his chest. Almost distraught, he decided that this was a bad time to tell her that she was drenching his, or rather her father's, shirt.

"A-Aoko, please, what's going on?" he dared to ask her after she wouldn't budge from her position on top of him for another three whole minutes.

"Idiot." She whispered.

"W-what?" His head shot up as he pulled back a little to look down at her.

"IDIOT!" She screamed at him, the smile still present that was now freaking him out even more, just like the fire in her eyes.

"WHAT?"

"You are so stupid." She smiled at him. Kaito only gaped her, having lost his ability to form a proper sentence.

Aoko's eyes softened as she laid a hand on his cheek and Kaito felt his heart stop beating for a second. "Just like I am stupid." He blinked lost at her, the deep need for explanation clearly written all over his face. Aoko smiled softly. "All this time, I've been thinking that I forced the kiss on you and that's why you hate me now. Do you understand?"

He shook his head.

"You are always so bright, why are you at a loss of words now?" She teased him, giggling.

_'This woman is freaking me out.'_ was the only thought that was running up and down Kaito's mind at this moment while he still was staring at her, puzzled and with open mouth.

"I thought you didn't like the kiss. I thought I went too far. I thought you hated me. The truth is, I loved it and it was the best thing I have ever experienced."

His face started flaming as he slowly understood what she was playing at.

"You…you mean, you…? Youuu?"

Aoko stroked with the hand that was still at his face over his cheek affectionately, her eyes telling him everything that he needed to know and so much more than he had never expected. In the blink of an eye, he had his arms around her body and was hugging her tightly to him, burying his face in her hair.

He held her very tightly, afraid that this might be a dream and in the next second she'd just combust into a cloud of smoke, like a rose that he could appear effortlessly. But she only smiled at him and slowly returned the hug, one of her hands stroking his hair reassuringly, somehow knowing that he was needing this reassurance more than anything. No matter how strong Kaito wanted to appear to the outer world, she knew that when it came to emotions he was a lost child.

And Aoko intended to help him out of this uncertainty. Kaito tightened his grip on her and they spent the next minutes on the floor, with Aoko sitting on his lap and both entangled in a passionate embrace.

Kaito couldn't remember the last time that he felt this at peace with himself and everything else. It was like a very big weight was removed from his chest, one that he didn't know he was carrying unless she took it away, and the relief that flooded him was almost unbearable for a moment. But the feeling of her warm weight against him and her hand that was still stroking his head soon made him forget everything negative.

At some point, he pulled back a little to look at her, his face just as happy as her own expression. "You're right. I can't believe that we've been this stupid."

Aoko nodded and moved forward to hug him around the neck. "Oh Kaito. You have no idea how long I've been wanting to do this."

"If it's as long as I've had this urge, then I think I have a pretty good picture," he told her softly and hugged her back, moving them both to sit on the couch where he settled her on his lap and went to stroking her back tenderly.

"I never knew you could be this sweet." She smiled, leaning against him.

"There are a lot of things you don't know about me yet." He had said this without thinking about it, the sarcasm behind this one sentence luckily remaining concealed to her.

She looked deeply in his eyes, seeing his words more as a challenge than anything else. "I can't wait. But…is everything all right between us now?"

Kaito smiled at her and gently kissed the top of her head. "Yeah."

"Well then…c-can you… kiss me again?" She blushed furiously at her own words.

"God, yes!" He exclaimed loudly and lunged forward to catch her lips. His own strong impulse surprised himself and he quickly pulled back, already starting to apologize.

"I am sorry, this was too fast and I didn't mean-"

But Aoko only smiled at him and took hold of his face then pulled him back towards her, catching his lips in a slow and sweet kiss and effectively shutting him up. Kaito immediately relaxed against her and wound his arms slowly around her body while she sighed and hugged him around the neck.

The kiss was endlessly gentle and robbed both the unexperienced young adults of their breaths so that they had to pull away only a minute later.

"This is it." Aoko quietly whispered, looking with shining eyes and flustered face at him.

"What?" He asked quietly.

"How I wanted my first real kiss to be like."

Kaito smiled and bend towards her to kiss her again softly. "I know exactly what you mean," he told her quietly after pulling back and resting his forehead against hers.

His free hand was stroking her hair tenderly and Aoko smiled even brighter at him, having never felt better in her whole life.

"It's funny," Kaito spoke soon. "Here you were, thinking I hated you but you have no idea what you make me feel."

"How do I make you feel?"

"There are no words to describe it and even if there were, you know I am no good with words anyway. I've simply never felt better in my whole life."

She smiled, having just thought the same. "Just like me. We are funny, aren't we?"

"In our own way." He agreed, nodding.

"No more self-doubts. Promise?" She asked.

"Promise."

Aoko smiled satisfied and hugged him again, feeling freer than she had felt in a long time.

"I've wanted to do this for so long," she admitted again, looking away from him as her head lay on his shoulder.

"Oh really?" Kaito was amused. "I'd never have guessed." He was completely serious.

"But I did, too."

If not at the last time he had saved her life, this was the moment Kaito was one hundred percent certain that he loved Aoko more than anything else on this planet. And with what had happened the past minutes, he felt a slight hope inside his chest that she might feel the same way about him.

Should he tell her? Was it the right time?

He was scared. Scared of rejection, scared that it would be too much. To be honest, he already felt like his head was spinning. And he was still so new to this whole affection-showing thing. So, maybe it was better to take it a step slower.

Kaito smiled as he felt her kiss his cheek on the side her head had been resting against. He was certain that Aoko had a lot of love to give. She was always closing herself in her shell but deep inside she wanted affection like everybody did.

_'Oh Aoko.'_

He cupped her right cheek in a hand and bend to whisper in her left ear. "You mean so much to me."

_'Almost as good. Well, it's a beginning.'_

"So do you." She whispered back and his heart jumped in joy.

He kissed her cheek, the side of her face, her ear, and Aoko gasped, holding his head close. Kaito took this as a good sign and suddenly, all the emotions that were cursing through him combined with the numerous lonely years made him feel a strong wave of affection towards this girl tearing through him. The air between and around them grew hotter and the need for more increased with every passing second.

Never would one of them have thought that being together like this could feel this brilliant. He pulled back to lock eyes again and saw that she was feeling the same. Her lips were redder than usual and slightly parted. A distracted and flushed expression was clearly to be seen on her face. That made Kaito proud because he knew he was responsible for it.

With one hand he stroked her face and pushed her hair back, earning a beautiful smile from the girl of his dreams. Her hand came up to lay on his, trapping it between her hand and cheek while her other wound around his neck, pulling him closer. Licking her lips absentmindedly and sharing a last, questioning look with him, she pulled him forward even more and leaned towards Kaito the last inch, catching his lips in a breathtaking kiss that had her skin tingling all over for several minutes.

How could he, with one simple kiss, cause her heart to race and make her insides toss and turn wilder than any great party could hope for? Out of nowhere, a new thought crossed her mind and she slowly pulled away.

"Where did you learn that?" she whispered, panting hard but staying so close to his lips that he was able to feel her breath play across his chin.

Kaito smiled. Aoko wouldn't be Aoko if she wasn't a little jealous. Stroking again over her hair, still smiling, he gently shook his head, signaling that he had never tried this with another woman.

Understanding immediately, she felt relief wash through her and a wave of euphoria almost forced her to storm back in his arms and kiss him again. Kaito smiled in the kiss. Oh how she loved his smile, and wound his arms around her, rubbing over her back in big circles.

This is how they spend the next hour, cuddling and kissing on the couch. Aoko lay on him exhausted from the day, her head spinning with the great amount of endorphins that her body had released. She was completely content and happy and felt like she could fall asleep any moment.

"Aoko?" His soft voice asked her but she didn't move.

"Hm?"

"When's your father coming home?" Kaito blushed involuntarily. "I mean, he won't be pleased to see us like this and…" He felt stupid saying those things and as embarrassment took the better of him, Kaito decided it was due time to shut up.

Aoko chuckled against him and turned her head to look at the boy she was laying on. "He's very busy with this Kid case; I don't think he'll come home tonight."

At the mention of Kid, Kaito felt a light stinging in the area of his heart but the guilt was quickly replaced, suppressed, by the rest of her sentence.

"All alone tonight?" He asked, blinking. She nodded, now blushing herself.

Some time passed where neither said a word or moved a muscle, only looked at the other before he broke the silence that had been loaded with tension. "Perhaps I should…you know, go home. If your father found me, I'd be sure to die a slow, painful death."

Aoko giggled at that and she answered him in a way that he'd never have expected. "I don't think so."

"What??"

"I can't let you go out there, alone. There may be still some of those furies from earlier, waiting to kidnap you and do a whole lot of indecent things to you."

Kaito blinked at her surprised. "Aoko??" She blushed and looked away, laying her head back on the spot on his chest that seemed to be made for her to lie on.

"To tell the truth, after today and this horrible week, I'd really like you to stay here tonight…"

It was an understatement to say that Kaito was simply stunned at her silent but honest request. After the first shock had vanished, he felt guilt nagging on him for causing her to experience this bad week. Then he felt happy that she wanted to have him close to her.

"You mean, like in the mountains?"

She nodded. One side of Kaito's lips curved upwards. "Okay."

Aoko turned to look at him. "You'll stay?"

"If that's your wish."

"Yeah." She went back to hugging him. He returned the hug and she yawned a minute later.

Kaito grinned and sat up slowly. "Kaito?"

He said nothing but took her in his arms and walked over to her room where he sat her down on her bed. She smiled thankfully at him.

"I'll go to the bathroom to get dressed and you can…you know, make yourself comfortable. Here are some things from my Dad." She blushed and quickly disappeared with her clothes in one hand.

Out of nowhere, Kaito was feeling more than hot. He stripped down to his boxers, then looked at the things Aoko had given him. They were a light green shirt and sweatpants that reached to his knees. He shrugged and put them on, then sat on her bed and looked around the room as if it was the first time that he'd seen it.

He couldn't believe what had happened the past hour. His life had changed so much, and for the better, and it was all thanks to-

His thought came to an abrupt end as Aoko slowly pushed the door to her room open and entered before closing it behind her.

With her hands crossed at her back, she stood in front of him shyly, one leg behind the other. He could only stare at the innocent beauty that she presented in her puffy, white and baby-pink gown with cream-white ruffles on the collar and arm-sleeves. A few minutes ago, to Aoko this had been a nice idea but now, standing in front of Kaito, she felt stupid.

Only his slight grin and hand that he slowly stretched out in her direction reassured her a little, and she slowly moved towards him, reaching for it with her own hand, which then entangled with it. His head was tilted upwards and she was looking down, right at it as she came to a halt between his spread legs.

When he was looking at her like this was the only time that Aoko felt beautiful and desirable, his past insults that told the opposite long forgotten. One of her hands lay on his cheek as his free hand wound around her waist and pulled her gently down to sit on his left leg.

She followed his lead, sitting down and never breaking eye contact. He had had an awesome expression on his face since the moment she had entered the room and it caused her to smile at him. Her hands on his cheek went to tracing the contours of his lips. Lips that could be cruel when insulting but so soft when kissing, as she had recently found out. She couldn't help herself as she leaned forward and caught those lips in a gentle kiss that soon gained force.

Kaito sat up, turned, rolled her over and lay her down on her bed, always resuming the lips lock, the hand that was not interlocked with hers roaming the sides of her body.

_'Didn't you want to take it slower?'_ A nagging voice in his brain annoyed him. He chose to ignore it cruelly.

As Aoko pulled her head back in order to breathe, panting heavily, Kaito used the interruption and new angle to trail his burning kisses down her chin and throat, then back over the side of her face to her ear.

She could hear a light "puff" noise and looked down and was greeted by the sight of a rose that he held out for her.

"Kaito?"

"For you. I guess I have never really told you how beautiful you are." He stroked the rose over her forehead and down her face slowly.

Aoko felt like crying. Kaito had never been this sweet or affectionate to her and now that he was, voluntarily, it was simply overwhelming.

"Are you serious?" She couldn't help but whisper.

"Yeah, absolutely. Just look at you."

One second later he had a girl all over him that was passionately kissing the air out of poor Kaito as if she was trying to devour him through his mouth. She'd always believed him to be gorgeous but after the show tonight, she was more certain than ever. Deepening the kiss, Aoko's hand caressed the back of his head, holding him close. Wanting to be on top, she rolled over and suddenly, a loud noise tore through the room.

Shocked, Aoko looked down her bed, one hand covering her mouth. "Oh my god, I am so sorry. Are you all right? And your wrist? Kaito? Say something."

Kaito was rubbing his back and groaned out softly. "What are you trying to do, kill me?

Aoko chuckled. "As if it were so easy. You know that the evil always lives on." She chuckled even more as she saw his annoyed, grim gaze.

She held one hand out for him to take it and Kaito took it slowly, inwardly smiling at the proof that Aoko was still Aoko. The same Aoko that he knew, loved and adored.

She glided further to the middle of the bed, creating space for him. Kaito lay next to her and an instant later she was sprawled next to him, pressing to his side. She took one of his hands in hers and examined the bandage there. "Does it hurt?" She stroked it with one hand, holding it in the other.

"Suddenly, not at all." He bent and kissed her neck softly.

She blushed lightly and looked at their hands. "I am glad…but K-Kaito, I-I…I don't know if I am…ready to…to…for…" She stopped herself and turned to hide her head in the crook of his neck and shoulder, feeling embarrassed to the limits, knowing her head must be red as a ripe tomato.

Kaito smiled tenderly as he understood what she was talking about. He put one finger under her chin and forced her to look up at him. "Stupid, are you afraid I would do anything to harm you? Or anything that you don't want?"

She stared in his sincere eyes and knew that he was right. No matter how often he insulted her, he was always there to protect her when it came down to it, with no regard to his own safety. She trusted him more than anybody else and she was not about to change that. After all, this was her Kaito she was talking about.

"You're right, sorry." She admitted and cuddled deeper in his embrace.

He tightened his grip on her, trying to give her some security. In reality, he had no idea how save she was feeling when wrapped in his arms like this. To Aoko, this was the safest place.

A strong feeling of safety, warmth and affection was swimming through her body, warming her insides even more. He took her hand and placed a slow kiss on the back of it. Aoko giggled and watched him fascinated as he moved his kisses to her palm, each finger, her wrist, then up her arm over the strap of her night-gown to her neck, seeking for any secret she might kept hidden on her skin, wanting to show her his affection.

She moaned very softly as he kissed over her neck up to her chin, then around her lips, her nose, her cheeks, her whole face before lingering on her lips longer than anywhere else with feather-light touches. The feelings that were coursing through them both were too good to be true and unlike anything either had ever experienced.

She stroked his ever-messy hair lovingly, moved over his scalp and down his neck while Kaito kept kissing every patch of skin that he could reach.

_I want to review my kisses  
On every inch of your body  
I want to reveal my secrets  
That only you should know  
I feel all this pain inside of me  
That only your lips can make better  
I wanna review my kisses  
So you won't forget that you are mine_

His lips on her skin were balsam for Aoko's soul. It more than made up for the years of having to live without it and for this week that she would most gladly forget. Except for this moment, of course.

Nibbling softly at her neck and stroking her hair back, Kaito knew he could spend the whole night right here, doing right this and need nothing else. Make her understand, even more, how much she meant to him and that he would love to have her all to himself, for ever. Casting a glimpse on the clock Aoko had next to her bed, he discovered that it was already way past midnight.

He sighed inwardly and stole another kiss from her lips, as thieves were supposed to do-an amused voice inside him told him, then pulled back to look at her.

"Sweetheart?"

Aoko found her voice gone for a moment. Never had he called her by…a name other than her own that was not an insult. Her heart started, if this was even possible, beating even stronger.

"Yes?"

"It's late…we should sleep. Probably…" Saying those words sounded strange to him. In his head they had made so much more sense and sounded way more reasonable than now that he was looking at her big eyes.

Aoko smiled and sat up, Kaito would have almost protested loudly, to take the blanket that she pulled over their bodies. She settled comfortably half on top of him, one leg on his, one arm over his chest and her head on his arm, then exhaled a long breath. Even for a blind person it was clear that this young woman had seldom been happier than at this moment.

She turned her head for a moment to press a long kiss on his lips. "Good night."

"Sweet dreams." He grinned back and settled his head comfortably on hers after she had put it back on him, one of his hands stroking over her back in slow motions.

He could have sworn he heard her murmur a: "Couldn't be sweeter than reality" and smiled at that, kissing the crown of her head a last time. His eyes closed and a sigh escaped his lips.

_'I love you.'_ was swirring through their minds, both wanting to tell the other but neither daring. But it was not grave for they had their whole lives ahead of them, certainly together because neither of them believed that their meeting so many years ago, in front of that old clock, had been a coincidence.

'Maybe a sign of affection from fate…'

Nobody knew, and nobody cared anymore. All that mattered at this moment, was the present and the future, now, that they had finally, truly found each other.

---

"Where we were? I think you mentioned something about a reward." Ran grinned at Shinichi.

"I did, didn't I?" He kneeled above her and grinning dove in for another kiss.

"You know what?" Ran asked after pushing him back a little.

"What?" He looked curiously at her then startled as she pushed him off her and on the couch. She was towering above him and grinning down. Having his shirt tattered did have its benefits. She pushed its last reminders off him and stroked with her hands over his chest and arms, smiling to herself.

"You know, that show earlier, seeing you on that counter, dancing to the music, swinging your body…it was so much of a turn-on." She bent down and kissed over his chest slowly.

"Oh really? And you weren't jealous at all?" He grinned at her, knowing exactly that she could be really jealous at times.

Her nails scratched on his stomach and her expression was strict all of a sudden. "Just because those brainless, hormone-driven furies were drooling over **my** future husband?" The scratching got harder and Shinichi almost winced in pain. "No at all."

"Raaan…" He said, meaning to say 'Please don't spear me'.

She grinned at Shinichi and leaned down to kiss the red marks that she had left and moved up to his ear, whispering seductively. "Besides, all they can do is dream about it. I, on the other hand, can take you home with me." She nibbled on his ear-lobe.

"Oohh, I see." His arms came up to hold her loosely around the waist. "And what are you planning on doing, now that you got me home?"

Ran grinned evilly, then bent to whisper something in his ear. Shinichi's eyes slowly grew big, then huge. As she pulled back to grin at him he stared at her open mouthed. "Are you serious?"

"Watch me." Ran whispered seductively and pinned his arms down to the couch. She sat further up on his lap and started kissing his chin, then neck, then down his throat with moist lips.

Shinichi was panting hard by now, finding it incredibly hard to remember the process of inhaling and exhaling. Hey, it was far more difficult than it looked and required a lot of coordination, not to mention an iron will.

Her touches were leaving burning trails along his skin and Ran was enjoying his shudders and squirms, feeling powerful, that she was able to make him like this. He gasped out her name and put a hand on her head as she tenderly bit his shoulder. She smiled against his skin and brought a hand up to stroke across his chest. It was slowly gliding along an imaginary path in all directions.

For undefined reasons, Ran liked doing this a whole lot; lay her head on his warm body and watch her hands trail across his skin. She wondered if it had anything to do with his long disappearance, but reasons really didn't matter at the moment as she felt the affection she was feeling for him soar through her stronger than anything else.

All that mattered was that he was here with her and that they were together. She kissed along his chest, going lower to kiss all over his stomach while grinning at the twitching muscles beneath her lips. Her fingertips were preparing and teasing and her following lips were increasing the need while never being really satisfying.

"Ran…" Shinichi moaned her name, tugging at her head gently.

She sat on him again, wound her arms around his head, and dove in for a deep kiss. She knew that this slow pace was killing him, but it was too much fun to stop. And she needed to make her point and clear out that he was hers. Only thinking about those women back there who had tried to get in his pants made her wish she was allowed to use her karate on civilians. It also enflamed a strong feeling of jealousy that lead to her wanting to prove who he belonged to, now and forever.

But as the kiss grew even more passionate, she felt her own desire urging her on, to hurry up. His arms came up around her back, pressing her closely to him and Ran slid even closer, if that was even possible. Smiling as she felt the evidence of how much he wanted her pressed between them, Ran pulled back from the kiss to catch her breath and watched him pant. She then lay on him, her chest purposefully pressing against his and dove one hand down to stroke him gently. He gasped loudly.

"Ran!"

It was almost a yelp and Ran was smiling contently against him. He looked scandaled at her as she decided to stand up and leave him there. Honestly, if you stole chocolate from a kid, it would look at you just as shocked and whine just as heart-meltingly. However, fortunately for the tantei, he could soon stop complaining as she took his hand and dragged him after her.

Arriving in her room, she turned him and pushed him down on her bed. A gentle hand on his chest made him lay down. He shivered as her hands then gently caressed a path from his shoulders down to the top of his pants. She didn't waste any time in getting rid of them along with his underwear what made Shinichi grin as he assisted her. It only proved that she was lost in desire as much as he was.

Standing back up, Ran slowly swayed her hips and started dancing with slow and deliberate moves that had Shinichi grinning, but he was definitely enjoying the show. She turned another time, looking at him sexily and then started to slowly pull her shirt over her head. Shaking her hair a bit, she tossed it around a little. She was nearing him with a predatorial look that she had on all this time and turned to sit down between his spread legs, presenting him her back. Her hair she was holding to her front, making clear what she wanted from him.

Shinichi immediately sprang to life and he sat up to touch her back. While kissing her neck from behind, his fingers made quick work of her bra which he then tossed somewhere. His hands were stroking up and down her arms and over her back, slowly working their way to her front, and while Ran was enjoying this immensely, she did manage to stand up and move away from him what earned herself a disappointed pout .

Smiling, she quickly turned around to continue her slow dance. Her skirt was next, obviously, and she put special emphasis on her hips that she shook slowly before lowering her zipper and letting the garment fall to the floor. She stepped out of it and let him look at her from top to toe.

Shinichi's eyes bulged as he noticed that she was not wearing anything else. He had not counted with this. _'But when did she…? I was sure she was wearing some earlier…?'_

Then it struck him. As he had gone to answer his phone, he had left her for a moment. She must have taken her panties off then. Mean woman.

"You planned this out, didn't you?"

Ran lowered her head to his level and looked at him with a grin. "Are you complaining?"

His hands grabbing her, and pulling her down on top of him was the only answer that he gave her. Ran smiled into the passionate kiss that he felt compelled to give her. His body was urging him on, and so was hers. The fact that her hot body was pressing on his own, skin to skin, was not helping him hold his horses one bit. Neither was the desire with which she was kissing him. He stroked her head and her back with his hands and pulled away from her mouth to gain some air. "R-Ran…" He panted and she understood immediately.

She kneeled next to his body, indicating for him to move further up the bed. He followed her orders obediently, honestly, had she told him to run down the street in a chicken suit right now, he'd have done it as well, and watched her fascinated as she crawled up to and over him.

Holding his arms down with her own, she smiled at him and leaned down to kiss him. This being-in-control thing was increasing her desire and judging by his pants and shivers it was clear that he couldn't take much more either. Ran decided that it was enough torturing and enough playing. She carefully sat down on him all the way, her chest high in the air, her fingers laced through his and both groaned out in passion and completion at the contact.

_It's a cave in the darkness  
And I'm lost inside you  
Don't go  
_  
_I want to review my kisses  
On every inch of your body  
I want to reveal my secrets  
That only you should know  
I feel like a childless mother  
Longing to hold her baby  
If I could review my kisses  
Then you won't forget that you are mine_

Later that night, Shinichi was holding Ran close to his body, one arm around her body securely while the other was stroking over her warm flesh.

"I loved the show," He admitted, still kissing her neck and shoulder.

"Sometime, you have to give me my own Shinichi-as-tabledancer show." She smiled at him.

"Whatever you want," he whispered, kissing her on her lips gently. And it was true. At this moment, she could ask anything from him and he would gladly do it. A dangerous state, as he figured, but not too bad since this was his Ran and he trusted her.

She smiled contently as he kissed her all over her face, her closed eyes and smile were betraying the state of bliss that she was in right now. One lazy arm stroked through his hair as she held him close. How she loved these tender moments late at night that made her feel absolutely loved and satisfied from the inside and that only he could give her.

Pulling his head back a little, she used the position to stare in his eyes deeply. Leaning up, she planted a sweet and long kiss on his lips before pulling back. Shinichi smiled, feeling his heart throb painfully fast for this beautiful being in his arms. He took a hand and tenderly stroked her face. "Ran?" he whispered, plunging his face in her hair so that his lips were close to her ear, causing her to shiver.

"Hm?" She asked, gently massaging the back of his neck.

"I love you."

Her eyes opened, surprised. A second later she pulled his head from its hiding and made him look at her. He returned her gaze with a tender look that showed his deep affection for her and that made her heart sing and made her want to scream "aawwwww" all over the place. A beautiful smile appeared on her face as she dove forward to kiss him again.

"I love you, too."

He returned the smile and stole another kiss from her lips as they cuddled against each other and slowly fell asleep, as content and happy as they could be.

* * *

_So, I am kinda nervous but I really hope you enjoyed this. Please do let me know for it's very motivating for me. The sing is "Review my kisses" by Lean Rimes, look it up it's beautiful. Until very soon! Love, Jojo_


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